


The Knight and The Dagger

by Dow



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Cold War, M/M, Minor Character Death, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-22
Updated: 2012-07-22
Packaged: 2017-11-10 11:16:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 29,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dow/pseuds/Dow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Lieutenant in the Soviet Army, Erik Lensherr had no other goals than to find the man that killed his parents. But when a discovery yields a little boy with wings like an angel, Erik is shocked to realize that he isn’t alone. There are other people like him, both dangerous and alluring.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Knight and The Dagger

**Author's Note:**

> Done for the X-Men Reverse Bang, from an art prompt by Ekaanta at Livejournal. I'll add her art link here when I get it.

  


Erik Lensherr wakes as he does every morning to the sound of the coin on his nightstand. It’s a low background hum that only twists into his conscious mind as he wakes. It reminds him what he’s doing. What he is alive for. It comes to his outstretched hand loyally as it does every day. As it will always do, until he’s done. His reverie is broken by shouting in Russian, something about missing boots and Erik rolls over in hopes that Andrei will just give up on this nonsense.

It doesn’t happen. He drags himself out of bed and dresses in his uniform, slamming the door to his room open as he slips the coin into his pocket. The shouting stops and he waits a few moments listening to the scrambling before he crosses the hall, throwing the door to the barracks open with a bang. There is a row of seven beds, some of the men are awake and they nod at him as they lace up boots or shrug into coats. It will be breakfast in a few minutes, anyone who is still asleep is going to end up with nothing but coffee and porridge. He stops walking at the fifth bed, looking at Private Belyakov who was very astutely staring at down at his socked feet. His boots were nowhere in sight. Erik lets out a long, rumbling sigh before he turns and heads back out of the barracks. 

“Two minutes,” he says as he leaves. Two minutes to get to breakfast, two minutes to get all this ridiculous behavior out of your systems.

“Yes, Lieutenant!” Comes the chorus behind him and it’s blissfully quiet for a second before the shouting starts again. Erik heads towards breakfast and studiously pretends that he doesn’t see the boots buried upside down in the snow as he crosses the yard.

Other soldiers like to ask him about Russia. Frenchmen with a sly twisting smile asking about the weather or a Polish diplomat asking him how many bears he’s shot. To them it’s a strange and barren land full of snow and politics. Erik likes it, he likes the weather and the people. He’s been to other countries, but none of them quite have that same feeling. The same feeling that the sight of the red star as the doors to Auschwitz came down gave him. Kindness after what felt like a sea of horror.

He pushes the door open to the building that they’re using as a mess, moving smoothly over to the table where a pot of porridge is set up along with two small covered plates of pork and pancakes. He helps himself to a small breakfast, grabbing the entire pot of coffee and takes a seat at the only table that already has someone there.

Leni Zauber is a German spy, well at least that’s as much as she’s told Erik when he tracked her down outside of Moscow. She surprised him by showing up at the army base in a black wig and colored lenses for her eyes a month ago. Here she’s Ms. Rozhkov, the Majors secretary and he doesn’t know if she’s here for him or something else. Probably both, she seems like the type to play all sides. She smiles when he sits down and there’s some banal talk about the weather, it doesn’t matter, she’ll excuse herself when the first of his squad comes trailing in. They’ll make snide comments and Erik will roll his eyes as he cleans up both his breakfast plate and hers. His men never notice him pocket the small envelope that’s tucked under her plate. He doesn’t trust Leni Zauber much at all but he has to admit that her information has always been dead on. After all she’s the reason he’s gotten himself and his men stationed here in the middle of Tura nowhere.

But it had been years since he’d gotten as close to Schmidt as he is now and it’s partially her doing. When he’d demanded out of her the reason that she was helping him, she’d just grinned and told him she’d seen what Schmidt is capable of. He stopped asking her questions after that, he’s not sure he wants to know how she knows. It strikes too close to home for him to think about that. He knew what Schmidt had done to him in Auschwitz, he’d seen what other men had done to the smaller children, and the only reason he was still sane was that coin in his pocket.

He sits with his men as they bicker and goes over their orders. Basic patrols, marking out the topography as they went. They’ll go north this time and he’ll feel for the wide shapes of metal that lie underground. He’s found two empty labs so far, one of them is bound to have clues to Schmidt's location, or the man himself.

◢♘♞◣

Now Charles will usually be the last person to admit that he was wrong as unflattering as that sounds. It was just that when they had gone _en masse_ to free that last child from the underground facilities that he’d been finding, well, it had been awfully easy. There had only been two guards and three scientists all of which Charles had been able to take care of himself quite nicely. Darwin and Hank had ended up just being there for the fresh air. So one simply could not blame him for tempting fate and trying to get this one on his own. He’d only sensed three minds in the facility. It wasn’t his fault that one turned out to be another mutant and not nearly as nice as Charles had hoped.

He turns left hard and the jeeps wheels catch and grind in the frozen dirt as he zooms past the treeline. He just has to get to the edge of the forest, he can lose them in the trees. He soothes the whimpering lump in the footwell of the passenger seat next to him. Warren is wrapped in his coat and quite content to stay down there which Charles won’t argue with. He’s made contact with Hank, he’ll send Darwin out to meet them but goodness knows how long that was going to take. They were almost six miles from the rendezvous point and...

A cracking sound breaks his reverie and he jerks the jeep hard to the right as the remains of a gate flies past the jeep, tumbling end over end buffeted by the wind. Whirlwinds coming from the hands of the man in the car behind him. Charles would be impressed if it wasn’t bloody aimed at him and a five-year-old. Honestly, he would think that the man would have the words ‘collateral damage’ impressed on him as important as they had to do when Alex joined their ranks. He can see the edge of the forest he just had to get across the road and he was good. He was good, it was going to be okay. He thinks he jinxed himself as Raven would say when the jeep drops suddenly into a ditch hidden by snow and tangled brush. There’s a crack as the jeep lurches and for a moment Charles sees stars as he bangs his forehead on the steering wheel. Bloody cock sucking hell. 

He blinks as the jeep squeals to a final stop while he pants. “Warren!?”

“‘M alright,” A pair of blue eyes peer out from the folds of Charles’ coat.

“Good, come on, it’s time for plan b.”

Warren is scrambling out of the jeep as Charles exits on the other side. Warren is running towards the woods as fast as his legs can carry him as Charles stands in between him and the car that’s hurtling towards them. He can see the other mutant now, hanging out from the passenger window, the rippling winds tearing around his hands, dragging up the snow and dirt. Charles exhales slowly, swallowing, there really isn’t going to be a nice way to do this. He brings his fingers up to his temple, feeling the little flicker that was Warren and the two sharp minds in front of him. He smiles as he see the wide eyed recognition cross the other mutants face. _Hello,_ he wants to say, _we are the same._ But he’s seen what they did in that laboratory, the child he wasn’t able to save and the walls covered in diagrams of birds wings with black lines marking where to cut. They aren’t the same and that is such a pity.

Charles waits until the driver is about to turn to avoid the ditch that claimed his jeep to put him to sleep. The car squeals as Charles turns, diving aways as snow gets kicked up into the air. His timing was off and the other releases a whirlwind just as the car goes nose first into the ditch. It sends Charles and his jeep flying across the road into the field opposite it. It’s a bit exhilarating, flying, he can see how exciting it is for Warren. That’s the last thing he thinks before he hits the ground.

◢♘♞◣

There one thing that most people don’t know when joining any army is that ninety percent of the time it is ungodly boring. Erik is sitting astride Minka as the stable master has called the mare. They started taking the horses out for patrol after they realized that the animals were smarter than any of his men driving trying to drive a jeep through the rough terrain. Well, save Erik but he could control metal with his mind so that had to be like cheating. He’s scouting ahead as most of his squad makes notations on the half finished maps they’re dragging along while Urakov and Bergmann take an unofficial census of the local farmers.

He hasn’t sensed anything up here. The two laboratories he had found had been more towards the east but he hadn’t found anything to the south so... He lets out a sigh as he frowns, Leni’s message had not been what he wanted to hear. Schmidt hadn’t been sighted in a week and his associates seemed to have either gone back to Moscow or disappeared entirely. He was going to have to find some excuse to go back to Moscow if the situation didn’t change. There wasn’t a way he could arrange another transfer for a few months. He had a few days he could beg off for vacation but that wouldn’t get him to Moscow for as long as he may need. He was going to have to wait, again and that was going to leave him in a foul- The mare starts as a gunshot rings across the silence of the forest and Erik draws up on Minka’s reins. What the hells? 

He’s just emerging from the forest as laughter strikes up and another shot is fired. Oh Gods,they scared him. Two of his Privates, Alenko and Ranheim are situated on top of a small hill at the edge of the woods discharging their firearms as some poor flock of geese.

“What are you idiots doing!?” He shouts just before another shot is fired and a small scream rings out through the air.

Instantly they all freeze. That wasn’t a goose. Erik gives two hand signals and then men fall into line quickly behind him, staggering themselves as Erik rides forward. If anything is out there it will see him first. Erik can feel the hum of one of the bullets, embedded in a tree and he follows it until he senses bits of metal in a jumble... No, a crumpled line, buttons brass, seventeen of them. He slows the mare as he stares in the direction where they hover, close to the ground. Someone fallen or... Someone short. There’s a rustle and he’s looking into blue eyes with tears running down cheeks. A little boy with wavy blonde hair wrapped in a too big coat is peering at him from behind a tree. 

“Please,” he says in English and clutches the bark as Erik dismounts.

“It’s all right, I won’t hurt you.” Erik manages though his English is accented.

He approaches carefully as he gives his men the signal to hold. It’s like walking up on a rabbit, hoping they don’t bolt. Slowly Erik lowers himself into a crouch in the snow, still hanging onto Minka’s reins. “Come on, are you hurt?”

“There was guns,” the boy swallows and looks past Erik.

“They were shooting at birds. They didn’t see you. I’m sorry,” Erik holds out his hand. “They didn’t mean any harm.”

The boy looks like he isn’t quite convinced and Erik is noticing the cuts on his hands along with the bruise on the corner of his mouth. What happened? The boy has a curious accent when he talks, it takes Erik longer than he likes to place it.

“Why would you shoot birds?” The boy frowns as he takes a step away from the tree though he’s still holding onto it. American. He has an American accent. What on Earth is a little American boy doing out here?

“I don’t shoot birds and neither do my men, they just shoot _at_ them.”

The boy makes a face like he thinks Erik is being silly but he’s looking at him and then at Minka before he wriggles another inch forward. “Is that your horse?”

“Yes,” Erik nods. “Her name is Minka. She’s very sweet.”

That gets his hands off the tree and buried in his coat as he takes another step forward, this time more towards Minka than Erik but he’ll take it. “I have a horse!” He chirps. “His name is Benedict and he’s my size! He’s silver and he likes it when I bring him apples.”

Erik smiles as the boy grins at him. He had a horse. So he was either from the country or wealthy. The boy takes another step forward before he pauses, “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers. What’s your name?” 

Well that was one way to get around it. “My name is Erik, I am a lieutenant in the army here, and whom am I speaking to?”

“I’m Warren Worthington the third,” the boy introduces himself and hold his hand out for Erik to shake.

Erik takes it gently and after they’ve shook he turns the boy’s hand palm up where there are visible cuts on his hand as he does so Erik catches the sight of ink on the boy’s skin. Warren is quiet as Erik reaches up to push his coat up revealing the numbers 005. Erik’s mouth goes dry as he looks up into Warren who isn’t smiling anymore.

“What happened to you?” Erik breathes as Warren shifts from foot to foot but doesn’t make an effort to take his hand back.

Warren speaks in a rush. “Mama and Daddy went to see an opera and the sitter stayed downstairs but after I fell asleep I woke up in a box. There were men yelling at me and they drew on me and it hurt. They said I was a freak but that’s not right, because mama says I’m her little angel and they took me on a ship but I got sick and I didn’t like it. Then they brought me to a man in a white coat who said he was going to fix me but I didn’t want to be fixed I wanted my mama. He put me in a cage but then there was Charles who said he was going to take me home but the jeep crashed and he told me to do plan b.”

“Plan b?” Erik as as Warren nods knowingly.

“Run as fast as you can.”

“That’s a good plan b,” Erik nods as settles Warren’s sleeve back down and reaches out to adjust the coat so it doesn't bunch up so much on his back. That was a strange story but the laboratories he found were starting to make sense now. Was Schmidt experimenting on more children? Wait. On more-

“Ouch!” Warren frowns at him as he tugs on the coat.

“I’m sorry,” Erik apologizes as his fingers still, there are large lumps on Warrens back and the boy wriggles out of the coat.

“It’s okay, it just hurts when I smoosh them like that. I had a harness that Daddy made me but I lost it.”

The coat slides into Erik’s hands and behind Warren are the most beautiful white feathered wings. Mama calls him her little angel. Oh. 

“I’m not a freak,” Warren pouts. “Mama says so.”

Erik slides the coat back around him, resettling his wings so they weren’t bunched up. “No,” Erik breaths as he manages a small smile. “You are not a freak. You are beautiful.”

Warren beams at him and tosses his arms around Erik’s neck, letting him slide his arm around his legs and pick him up. “Will you take me home?”

“I will make sure you are safe,” Erik promises. “And we will try to get you home very soon.”

He doesn’t know if he follow through with that second promise. His men are coming up behind him and wings are a lot harder to hide than the ability to move metal. But he’ll keep him safe, he’ll keep him away from Schmidt. He won’t let anything happen to this little creature. He looks up at the wide eyed looks of his men behind him. They’ve lowered their weapons, but they saw when Warrens coat was off.

“An angel...” Urakov breathes but Erik shakes his head.

“His name is Warren,” he says, and holds the boy tighter to him as the men come up to chatter at him, smiling and awestruck.

◢♘♞◣

“I am the worst person in the world!” Charles moans as Hank dabs alcohol across the scratches on his back.

“I am pretty sure that’s not true.” Darwin shakes his head as he leans against the counter in the kitchen of the farmhouse that they’ve appropriated. 

“Of course it’s true! I lost him! I got knocked out and I lost Warren! What if they took him again!? He must be terrified! Why can’t I find him!?” 

“That might have to do with the concussion,” Hank offers from over his shoulder and Charles give him a dark look.

His head had been swimming since Darwin had found him. Children’s minds were already like a flickering candle, difficult to read unless you knew them and harder to find. Darwin had fetched him, towed the jeep and reported that there were no other people around, just the abandoned car. It was likely that they wouldn’t go after Warren if they had to walk the three miles back but who knew? What if they were out there looking for him right now? While Charles was here all swimmy and bruised and-

“Charles, you’re projecting,” Darwin says as he takes a step forward to lay a hand on his shoulder. “Think about where you were, what’s around there?”

“Nothing, two farms and, there’s an army base but it’s a stop over base, it’s not fully manned.”

“Wait, the Thirty-Ninth? That base?” Hank frowns as he puts his furred hand on Charles’ back to stop him squirming.

“I think so, why?” Charles grumbles because this is not the time for Hank to impress him with his knowledge of random facts about Russia.

“Uh, because that’s where Raven is. We received a communication from her right before you left to go get Warren.”

Charles stops and blinks. He hardly ever knows where his sister is anymore unless they’re both in London. After he’d been scouted by MI6 she had insisted in coming with him. Which of course had made the agents that had showed up at their flat laugh, right up until she shapeshifted into the prime minister. The resulting scramble had been a combination of hilarious and utterly embarrassing. But when Charles got into the unmarked car that had come for him Raven had gone too, looking far too smug about it. She’s been in undercover missions for the last year.

“Raven is in Russia? A few miles from us? And no one thought to tell me?” Charles isn’t sure if he’s upset or relieved. 

“You were already in the jeep,” Darwin frowns. “Don’t be angry about it. Look, I’ll get a message to her. Let her know what’s going on, she’s faster at finding out information than we are. She might be able to tell us if Shaw’s people got ahold of Warren again.”

He grumbles as he leans over the chair he straddling. Darwin is right, Raven might know something and even if she doesn’t she’s probably already established a better network here. He was far too dependent on his telepathy to develop contacts as well as his sister did. Darwin goes off upstairs to the attic that’s currently acting as their information center as Hank steps over to the kitchen sink to rinse out the bowl he was using to hold antiseptic.

Charles had to find Warren, quickly, before Shaw got a hold of him again or he was left stranded in the countryside after dark. Both were terrible options, or if the army found him? Goodness. Charles closed his eyes and focused as hard as he could, stretching his powers slowly. There was a flicker of minds in a group, something he could almost pinpoint... Someone just poked him in the middle of the forehead.

“Owww...” Charles hisses as he opens his eyes.

“Ouch,” Ororo smiles at him wide eyed and tries to poke him again but he catches her tiny hand.

Jean is standing there staring at him with an amused twisty sort of smile on her face, holding Ororo who is still in her pajamas and currently intent on poking all these interesting marks that Charles is sporting. 

“Oh darling, not there,” Charles frowns as Ororo giggles, making grabby hands at him until he leans back and lets her crawl up to stand on the chair so she can tug on his ear.

Jean is still quiet, wearing one of Darwin’s shirts and a pair of slightly large overalls that Hank had procured from somewhere. Her hair is growing back nicely, the soft red of it starting to cover the scars on her scalp. She steps forward when Charles beckons and he feels the slight brush of _concern relief_ come from her. She hasn’t spoken aloud since they took her out of the chamber they’d found her in, pinned flat like a butterfly on a board with so many wires. She winces when he thinks it and he sends her a wave of apology as he reaches up to brush his hand over her head.

She smiles at him and sends him a jumble of something sunlight with patterned green curtains along with the scent of...

“I’m sure if we ask very nicely we can get Hank to make us some pancakes.” Charles says while both girls beam up at him.

◢♘♞◣

Erik would never make the mistake of thinking of himself as someone who likes children. He always assumed it would be different if he had his own, of course, things usually are like that. But mostly children just existed to be noisy and looked after, both things Erik certainly did not have time for in the grand scheme of things. So, it’s with a frown that he sitting on his bed with a comb and carefully grooming Warrens wings. The little one is a talker, he’ll give him that. In the short course of bringing him back to the base, getting him washed and patched up and now this Erik is pretty sure he has an excellent grasp on the boy’s entire life story. As well as where this so called ‘bad place’ is generally.

Once in awhile someone will peer into his room, curious but only staying for a second. Erik is the commanding officer here when the Major is gone and if he doesn’t see anything strange about a little boy with wings then no one else sure as hell will. He’s halfway through smoothing out the feathers on the boy’s other wing when the talking begins to slow. Erik still hums behind him, yes and no, so Warren knows that he’s paying attention. But by the time he’s finished smoothing out the last of what he remembers are primary feathers on birds the talking has ceased altogether with Warren drooped sideways over Erik’s knee.

It isn’t until he’s carefully eased Warren over and wrapped him in a blanket that he sees Leni leaning in the doorway with a soft smile on her face. “You’ve certainly found a curious little thing.”

Erik shrugs, not bothering to hide the defensive set in his shoulders. She would not make some sort of profit on this child with him around and he wanted her to know it.

“It doesn’t strike you as odd? A boy with wings?” There’s a note of something in her voice, an answer that she’s looking for.

“Perhaps if I had not seen him with my own eyes.” Erik remarks, reaching out to smooth down Warren’s damp blond curls.

Leni eases back against the doorway and smiles again, that soft smile and he wonders for a moment what she had seen to make it return. “The Major is coming up from Moscow, Alenko reported in when you arrived. He wants to see this little ‘angel’ and I think he’s bringing General Karapov with him.”

Erik’s hand stills, curved over Warren’s head as he lifts his eyes to look at Leni. Her expression has gone serious, she knows exactly what he fears. A child with wings and men in power. He can see the patterns of wings on flags, on war posters, feathers over a battlefield. Schmidt in the shadows waiting for the perfect moment to flay the child from the inside out. Erik has no scars from Schmidt on his flesh but the numbers, but he has scars.

“Well, he must be made presentable then.” Erik hums, his expression carefully blank.

Leni nods as she eases out of the doorway. Erik stays perfectly still until the sounds of her footsteps fade. She never wears much metal, only a bracelet now and again with the letter ‘C’ dangling from it. He follows it across the yard, into the Major’s quarters until he’s sure that she’s writing. 

He was going to go out tonight, find the place where Warren was being held and tear it open. He needed to find Schmidt but... He looks down at the little lump in his bed, tucked under his blankets and over to the long coat that was hanging next to his door, it’s seventeen brass buttons humming in the air. They are drowning out the sound of the coin in his pocket. If he could get the little one to Moscow, there were people there that would help him get back home. Eriks adjust himself on the bed so that he’s between Warren and the door. If he could get him to one of the outposts on the border, he knew a few of the farmers out there would protect the boy for a short time, then his contacts could fetch the boy from there. Erik would only be gone a night, his men were used to his absences. They always claimed that he needed his walkabouts to clear his mind of the war. Yes. That’s exactly what he would do. He just needed to move quick and perhaps Leni would have more information when he returned. Erik lets out a breath as he reaches into his pocket to pull the coin from it. It hums along with the brass buttons in harmony and Erik grins.

◢♘♞◣

“Charles!”

Charles opens his eyes from the couch that Hank has insisted that he stay on, even going to far as to threaten to sit on him if he got up before dinner. Jean and Ororo are playing cards on the floor next to him, some new game of their own making that seems to be more about randomly pairing up the face cards than actually following rules.

“What’s wrong?” He asks before he’s fully aware and looks up at Darwin hovering over him, flapping a telegram.

“Nothing now. Warren is at the army base. Raven says that the Lieutenant found him and now he’s being ‘quite spoiled’.”

Charles takes the little coded slip of paper that Darwin in waving over his head while letting out a sigh of relief. So the army did find Warren but he’s being spoiled and not well, other terrible things.

“Raven says she can get him out of the base tonight! That’s wonderful,” Charles grins as he sits up.

“You aren’t going alone this time.” Darwin says as he crosses his arms.

“Of course not. You’ll come and Hank can entertain the ladies.”

“Kitty!” Ororo shrieks as Hank comes down the stairs with a jumble of wires in his arms.

“I heard my name.” Hank frowns as he spreads the wires across the kitchen table ignoring Ororo’s attempts to climb him using handfuls of fur.

“It’s not good,” Darwin grins. “You’re on munchkin duty.”

Hank winces as Ororo gets to his back, tugging on his shirt and grabbing a handful of the fur on the back of his head. “Great.”

Charles stands quickly, making tutting sounds as he pries Ororo off as gently as he can while Jean stands and starts poking through Hank’s wires, her nose wrinkling.

“It’s for the generator.” Hank explains as Charles resettled Ororo on Hank’s shoulders, the place she was trying to get in the first place. 

Jean slides around the table until she can wriggle in between it and Hank. Charles has a feeling that she likes Hank’s mind, it’s mostly numbers. Hank is going on about the gutting that generator is going to get which means that someone is going to be washing grease off of Ororo later. Charles wonders if he can mentally suggest that Hank do it but he’ll probably still be up to his elbows in the generator with Jean holding the flashlight. 

Darwin is flipping through the translated telegrams in his hands. “Looks like Raven will try and have him out there tonight. Are you sure you’re up for this?”

“Of course,” Charles grins. “I’m up for anything.”

◢♘♞◣

Erik is dozing when he feels the unmistakable prickle on the back of his neck that signals someone is watching him. He opens his eyes a slit to regard Warren who is slightly bouncing next to his bed, grinning when Erik looks at him.

“I thought you were tired.” Erik remarks, but he knows that can’t be true. Warren spent half the day sleeping. Only waking up when Andrei brought in lunch ignoring the amazed look the man had given him while he squealed over leftover pancakes.

Erik had made him a pallet of blankets that had somehow grown when he’d take the boy down to the laundry to find something clean he could put him in. Erik hadn’t even known they’d had that many pillows in the barracks to begin with. He’s about to tell Warren to go lay down again. He’d told him he was going to try and get him home that night. That obviously mean that Erik needed sleep if anything. But somehow he moves his arm and the next thing he knows Warren is crawling into bed with him, sprawling himself across Erik’s chest. That was not what he meant to get across but he finds himself shifting, reaching up to rest his hand between Warren’s fluttery wings.

The boy is idly playing the collar of the shirt Erik is wearing, his head on his shoulder. Erik closes his eyes, at least this way he doesn’t have to worry about always wondering where the boy is. It’s quiet just long enough that Erik just begins to doze off again.

“Erik?” Verdammt. 

“What is it, Warren?”

“Are you lonely?” 

What kind of ridiculous questions was that? “No,” Erik answers. “I have my squadron here. There are plenty of other people. There is no reason to be lonely.”

“But you sleep by yourself. Mama says that she sleeps in the same bed with daddy because she doesn’t like being lonely.”

Oh hells. How have this boy’s parents not explained relationships to him yet? “That is because your mama and papa are married. When people are married they usually sleep together.”

“But I sleep with them, and I’m not married.” Warren frowns over this bit of information.

“Most married people let their babies sleep with them.” Erik explains, fully intent on falling back asleep now.

“I’m not a baby.” Warren makes a face that obviously signals his maturity as he turns his head and Erik now has a pointy chin digging into his sternum.

“Then why do you sleep with your parents?” Erik asks pointedly because he would like to get to sleep sometime before the shift change.

“Because I’m lonely.” Warren flops his head back down as his wings droop.

Ah, that’s what he was going on about. Why did children say things in such strange ways? He’s about to point out that it’s impossible for a child that is sprawled out across him like he’s a chaise to be lonely when he gets it. “Do you sleep with your parents a lot?”

Warren nods, his hair dragging across Erik’s shirt. Of course he’s lonely. How long has he had these wings? He must not get out of the house very much if at all. Erik remembers the orphanage after he was taken out of Schmidt’s lab. How terrified he’d been of the other children there. What would they think of him if they knew he was a freak? What if he hurt them? What if they told other adults about him and got him stuck in another laboratory with another Schmidt? He remembers friends from before the war but it’s so long ago. It’s like those memories are in black and white. Faded things that don’t seem as real as the blood or the scream of metal across his senses. He had been so alone. 

Erik swallows, he won’t see this boy after this. He’ll be gone, back to New York, back to his parents. No one will believe a small boy who says strange things. “Do you want to see a trick?” 

Warren pushes himself up, sitting heavily on Erik’s stomach but he nods, the little wistful frown of his gone for the moment. Slowly Erik reaches out, towards the nightstand. The coin rises from it as smoothly as it does in the mornings. Circling lazily towards his hand. But this time Warren reaches out, his face breaking into a huge grin as Erik lets him pluck the coin from the air. It’s song rising into a sweetness that Erik’s hardly heard from it before.

“How did you do that!?” Warren grins, he’s bouncing now which makes Erik sits up, letting the boy who apparently thinks that a trick this momentous requires hugs, slide into his lap.

“How do you have wings?” Erik asks. 

“Because I’m special.” Warren answers and then he grins. “ _You’re_ special too!”

Erik supposed that _special_ was a word for it. Warren hums, clutching the coin as Erik pulls the boy against his chest. Leni is pacing in the hallway, he can feel her bracelet and it’s far too late for her to be on this side of the base. He waits, follows it back and forth until she finally leaves the barracks, heading for the front of the base. Odd. Too odd. Erik shifts, eliciting a small noise of protest from Warren. “Come on, if you are not tired we will go now.”

Warren scrambles for his boots and Erik dresses quickly in his civilian clothes before Warren reaches up and puts the coin into Erik’s shirt pocket. Erik smiles as he wraps Warren up in the coat, carrying him close to his chest as he makes his way out of his room. Most of the men will be asleep or playing cards. Bergmann will be watching the front if he wasn’t already nodding off. 

Erik walks briskly through the snow, he intends to just walk through the back, the fence is metal and near the road is a farm that Erik frequently borrows horses from. It was only eighteen miles to his contact in the country and from there the man could get Warren to Magda in Moscow. Erik had enough money saved up to be sure of it. 

He’s calculating distance and just exactly what he’s going to say when he feels metal move in front of him. A dark skinned man in a gray and blue suit, three zippers, six metal buttons and a five point harness. He’s not supposed to be here. He freezes when he sees Erik and something strange happens, he clenches his fist and it turns completely to steel. Erik can feel the shape of it but before his brain even catches up to what’s happened the man shifts, he is about to open his mouth, but his eyes are on Warren. He has to be here for Warren. Erik doesn’t think, he just reacts.

◢♘♞◣

Charles doesn’t think it’s quite fair that he has to stay out in the woods on point while Darwin makes his way to rendezvous with Raven. It was only one jeep he crashed, today. He’s just blowing his hair out of his face and shrugging into Hank’s far too large borrowed coat when he feels the familiar flicker of Raven’s mind. He watches her climb quite soundlessly over the fence to the army base and he sends her a little ping of _hello, over here!_ He’s grinning as she hugs him, the form of her new to him but the familiar voice of hers echoing in his mind. _Hank said you were out here! Where’s the rest? We’ve hit a slight hitch._

 _Darwin went around back to try and find you after I informed him that not all the men were asleep. I offered to fix it but he’s gone all secret agent on me._ Charles frowns as he tries to find Darwin in the base but he’s damn slippery to get ahold of due to his mutation.

 _Oh, so it’s not the fact that you have a concussion and he doesn’t want you using your powers?_ Raven tilts her head pointedly.

 _It’s not serious. I’m perfectly fine._ Charles rolls his eyes. _What hitch are you talking about?_

_Uh, the hitch is that when I went to get Warren out of the Lieutenants room he was asleep on his chest with the Lieutenant holding him. I did not want to crack that safe without a little help._

Charles grins at the image. _He won’t let him go?_

 _He’s a survivor of the camps and jumpy when he’s awake. There was no way I wanted to bother him while sleeping._ Raven shrugs as she reaches out to tug on his coat, leading him around the base.

 _Ah, I can reasonably make sure he stays asleep while..._ Charles pauses as he feels a pair of warm flickers. _Hold on, Warren is on the move. I think the Lieutenant is as well._

He’s about to take another step forward when one of the flickers burst into a bright blaze. He gasps as he tastes metal and hears... singing? Raven pulls him to the ground as a dark shape flies past them and crashes into the trees. It takes him a second to realize that the metal outer fence of the army base has exploded outwards towards them and there, standing in the snow is a man with his hand outstretched. It takes him another second to realize that the shape that flew past them and is now groaning behind them was Darwin. 

“Darwin!” Raven scrambles up at the same time she’s jerked back down by her wrist and Charles finds that he’s being held to the ground by his buttons and his belt buckle. 

Well, that was another mutant definitely. He raises his hand to his temple but is yanked up before he can do anything, left hovering in the air. Which is not helping the headache he still has.

“Don’t move,” The man breathes and Charles swallows. Oh well, that was a voice that got things done.

“I believe there’s been a misunderstanding.” Charles smiles as sweetly as he can as Raven twists around on the ground.

“Damn it, Lensherr we’re not here to hurt anyone!” Raven growls.

Charles recognizes his coat as it wriggles in the man’s arms and Warren’s blonde head pops out the top. He giggles and the situation seems to diffuse when he says, “Hello Charles.”

“The Charles that wrecked the jeep?” The man turns to Warren who is nodding his head.

“I did a number of other things today than wreck a jeep, I’m not sure why everyone keeps bringing that up,” Charles frowns as he’s floated a few inches closer for inspection.

“You are here for Warren?” His English is accented and Charles swallows as he nods. He can’t make out much of what he looks like in the low outdoor lights of the base but his mind is... brilliant. It’s like a sunrise, warmth blooming across plains, streaked with light and fire. There’s a shout and Charles blinks, hell some of the men are awake and... The man takes a step forward as the fence folds back in on itself, the corrugated metal melding until there isn’t a sign that it was ever disturbed. That was utterly magnificent.

“Can my ass not be in the snow?” Raven pouts and Charles suddenly finds himself on his feet as Raven is getting to hers. 

“It’s alright,” Charles says as Darwin slides out of the woods, the panels of his natural armor fading. 

“Hopefully you can send the base back to bed and we can talk about this like civilized adults.” Raven stands shoulder to shoulder with Charles as he raises his fingers to his temple. The man, the Lieutenant he supposes, takes a step back but he doesn’t stop him this time. The shouting ceases, doors shut, lights turn off.

Charles is a little queasy when he’s done but it’s nothing some tea and a good lie down won’t fix. He looks up as the Lieutenant asks, “What did you do?” 

It isn’t an angry question. There’s awe in his voice, the hushed tones of surprise that play over him mind like violet shadows. Goodness, Charles is definitely going to have to stop peeking in on him. “I sent them to bed. Told them that a tree fell in the forest and that you were in your room the whole time.”

“Just like that?” He breathes.

“Just like that.” Charles extends his hand. “Professor Charles Xavier. Please to meet you.”

◢♘♞◣

“Lieutenant Erik Lehnsherr.” Erik has his hand out before he really thinks about it. This is strange, this man who is smiling like they’re colleagues at a meeting being introduced. Not strangers standing in the snow. Charles Xavier. Warren had told him about him, about how it was Charles that took him from the bad men. He sent the men to sleep. He wants to ask him how he did it but he thinks of Warren. How do you have wings?

“Did you come to get me?” Warrens asks as Charles dips his head to hear him better.

“Of course we came to get you! Jean and Ororo were very disappointed when I showed up without you. I got quite the scolding.”

Right. Warren had said there were others. Other children that Charles was going to take him to, that he was going to take them all home. British, the man had a British accent and Leni’s German one was gone. She sounded like Warren now.

“Do we have to do introductions in the snow?” She asks now as she leans over Charles. “I don’t know about you but I am starving. Please tell me you have something to eat besides potatoes.”

“Hank made dinner but it was vegetarian, you know him.” Darwin finally speaks, his voice deep, chuckling. Another American. 

“Look, if you don’t mind. We’re set up at a farmhouse about ten miles east. We can explain what’s going on, exchange information and have you back here before morning.” Charles grins. 

“How do I know I can trust you?” Erik asks. How do you trust someone who can do things with a thought?

“You don’t, that’s half the fun.” 

“We have different definitions of fun.” Erik frowns, “At least tell me who you work for.”

“Mi6,” Charles says without a beat and the only reason Erik believes him is the fact that Leni rolls her eyes. “Geez, Charles.”

“Oh, he would have found out eventually.”

“Mi6 employs professors?”

“I am a professor of genetics.” Charles answers which makes less sense and then all the sense. “Mutant genetics.”

“Mutant.” Erik says, he’s only heard that word here and there. Specials. Freaks. 

Charles can tell people what to do with a thought. Warren has wings. Darwin’s fist turned to metal. Erik is looking at people like... _him_.

“I thought I was alone.” Erik says and then Leni ripples, her skin darkening as her eyes lighten to a glimmer of gold in the dark.

“You’re not alone.” Charles is grinning and then slowly, Erik finds himself grinning as well.

◢♘♞◣

Charles is trying to not bounce in the back of the truck that Raven ‘commandeered’. He tends to do that when he’s excited, jamming his hands in his pockets to try and do something with all that extra energy. Raven and Darwin are in the cab which has left him, Erik, and Warren in the back. Warren seems quite content to stay cuddled in his coat and Erik seems quite content to keep ahold of the boy. Charles has seen blood streaked memories leaking over into a golden sort of protective instinct that flares up like a supernova every time Warren squirms in Erik’s arms to look at something or to get comfortable.

He is ever so tempted to just slide into the back of Erik’s mind like a ghost and curl up there among the colors. But Erik is eyeing him from across the truck bed like that what he already suspects Charles is doing and he’d hate to prove him right. Charles is trying to find the right words, he’s just always so excited when he meets another one of their kind that isn’t trying to squash him or drop him off a building. Darwin and Alex constantly roll their eyes at him, he does tend to come on a bit strong if he doesn’t take the time to school him mind and remember that not everyone is as excited about these sorts of things like he is.

He is about to launch into his normal ‘recruitment/there’s an entire world of us out there’ speech when Warren’s little hand pops out of the coat and pats Erik on the cheek. “Truck!” he shouts and for a moment Charles is confused. Yes, they are in a truck but...

“Lastwagen,” Erik says. “Samochód ciężarowy.”

Charles blinks as he proceeds to translate the word into Russian as well as French, and then Italian before he frowns for a moment and ends with, “Rekka.”

“Rekka,” Warren chirps. “Laswagen.”

Erik smiles and once again Charles is struck by the colors that surround him like a halo. 

“Just how many languages do you know?” Charles asks, the remnants of his pre-prepared speech unraveling like wisps of smoke.

Erik frowns again before he says, “Five, fluently. The rest I only know words or sentences here and there.”

“That’s remarkable. You must have studied for years.”

Erik shrugs, his colors growing dim as a slight pink tinges them. Charles didn’t mean to embarrass the man. “I didn’t learn them in a school. I just pick them up easily, they make sense to me.”

That is even more remarkable. Charles could attribute it to a secondary mutation but well, he always tries to do things like that, and humans themselves were just so gifted on their own.

Warren is patting his cheek again, causing Erik to look down. “How do you say ‘Charles’?”

Erik chuckles and Charles feels a blush creeping up his cheeks. “Charles is the same in any language, eule.”

He can’t help it, Charles eases into the back of Erik’s mind. A ghost among sharp edges and dark spots. It’s astonishing how he can still laugh like that with everything like... Charles can see something beyond barbed wire, a cyclone of whirling metal, a flickering candle-

The truck hits a bump and Charles blinks. Oh, that was dangerous. He promised himself that he wasn’t going to do anything like that anymore. Not after Moira, it was far too dangerous for the both of them. Instead he smiles politely, making small talk and shoving every bit of his power that he can get ahold of into the back of his own mind. Think of a cocoon, wrap everything up and everything will be safe.

◢♘♞◣

There’s a light burning in the window of the battered farmhouse that they pull up next to, Darwin guiding the truck into a barn. Parking next to a rather sad looking jeep. Erik knows where they are, he knows the area well and the roads so he’s not too worried. He doesn’t know if Charles can tell what he’s thinking, telepathy he’d said. Empathy. But the man seems fine, save for a crease of pain here and there around his eyes but Leni- No, Raven had been going on about a concussion and how he shouldn’t even be out much less using his powers as much as he had been.

He follows Charles into the back door, which led into a small kitchen. There’s a generator that has been utterly gutted in the middle of a dining room table and leaning over it is well... A beast. He huge, dark fur lit up in the guttering lamplight and... He’s wearing glasses. Erik bites the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. There’s a shift next to him and Erik realizes that there’s a little girl standing on the chair next him, a thin wispy girl in too big clothes with shorn hair and Erik doesn’t realize that he’s bit the inside of his cheek so hard that it’s bleeding until Charles takes a step forward.

“Hank! We’ve found Warren!” He stops next to the little girl, rubbing the top of her head before he leans down to press a kiss to her brow. “Miss. Jean! What are you doing still up? It’s very late, you know.”

Jean wrinkles her nose but smiles as she scrambles down from the chair, floating over like a little ghost to regard Erik and Warren. “Lieutenant Lensherr, this is Hank McCoy, our resident technology expert. Though he’s a bit of an expert in most things and this little one is Jean, we pulled her out of a bunker about a week ago.”

He watches as Jean looks him over, frowning between him and Warren, before she sticks her hand out very stiffly. Erik crouches down as Warren grumbles until he lets him down. He shakes her hand and then Warren does, his wings vibrating under the coat with excitement. “Hi, I’m Warren and that’s Erik. Do you play?”

Jean blinks as she fists her hands in the oversized shirt she’s wearing and seems to think about what Warren has asked her before she bites her lip, nodding quite seriously. Warren is wriggling again, shedding his coat and tossing it in Erik’s general direction as he goes to show off to Jean who is smiling now, softly, as she reaches out to poke at Warren’s wings.

“I think they’ll get along brilliantly,” Charles smiles as he comes to stand next to Erik as he rises from his crouch. They will. Jean is following Warren as he reaches up to pat at Hank’s arm as the beastly man smiles down at him.

“How about a drink?” Charles asks and Erik blinks for a second as he looked over at the other man. The way he asked the question was almost... “That way I can catch you up on what’s going on. Figure out why we’re both out here and such.”

Ah, of course. Erik nods as Raven streaks by him in a blur of blue and launches herself at Hank. The beast doesn’t budge as she laughs, dangling off his shoulders, but he smiles and Erik has to look away.

Charles leads him through a living room where another child sleeps on the sofa, her pale hair sticking up in wisps as she snuffles softly into the pillow she’s curled around. There’s a stairwell leading to a basement and it makes the backs of his hands itch as he follows Charles down. The man is thin, muscled like a greyhound but still thin. Erik could take him if he struck first. Something is happening, why would Charles speak to him? What did he want from him?

But Charles flicks the light on, revealing a cluttered desk covered in files and schematics. He steps around a pile of lined paper covered in scribbles on the floor, along with a half a dozen broken crayons. There’s a dilapidated couch in the corner of the room and Charles digs around in the back of it, producing a bottle of scotch. “Ah, here we are.”

He pours it out quietly into two glasses that don’t match but he smiles as he hands Erik his, gesturing to the couch as he takes a seat on a squeaking metal chair. Erik can feel the line of his body in the metal, as he sits. It’s not something new, he notices it every time someone has contact with metal but this seems... The hum is new, a song he’s never heard before. 

“So,” Charles leans back, far too comfortable than he should be in a stranger’s presence. “It’s a nice change to see Raven’s pet project instead of hearing about it.” Erik bristles for a moment before Charles raises a hand. “I’m sorry, poor choice of words. But it’s true isn’t it? She’s been giving you information and then hiding her communications with you.”

“She has been indispensible since I found her,” Erik finally admits, he’d still be in Moscow chasing dead ends if it weren’t for her.

“I know what you mean,” Charles grins. “I asked her a few months ago what her interest was in you. You aren’t known to work for any larger government agencies than the Soviet army but your aliases and face popped up a lot in our work.”

Their work. Erik rotates the glass in his hand. A farmhouse full of mutants. Working together? For what? Against what? “I have scores to settle.”

Charles nods as reaches over to the desk, sliding a folder off the top of a stack. “You know him as Schmidt, don’t you?”

Erik can still taste the copper in his mouth and the coins low hum rises to terrible levels, quieting as Charles hands him the file. The first document is a photograph. Men in tuxedos, cigars, laughing and Schmidt in the middle of it, unchanged after all this time.

“In America he’s known as Shaw. He’s a rather prolific businessman, he’s got ties to almost everything. Medicine, engineering, media, weapons, politics... It’s like he’s been around forever.” Charles takes a long drink from his glass, leaning forward before he swallows. “His faces shows up less often than yours, but every time something strange happens. Every time a person goes missing or a building full of technicians lose a few hours in their memory his name always is somewhere to be found in the periphery.”

“You’re looking for him?” There’s a small hope there, a flickering flame. Someone else wants Schmidt dead. He could have a real ally in this.

“There hasn’t been any direct evidence of his involvement in anything I’ve investigated. Not until now, not until you and the children.”

Erik frowns as he flips through pages and pages of documents, half of them blacked out. “The children and I?”

“Three weeks ago Warren was kidnapped. His parents were devastated. His father asked for help in every channel he could think of. No one answered him, it was odd, he’s a very prominent figure in politics. It was generally thought that someone was trying to blackmail the man to make changes in his stances but well, a little blue raven came to let me know that everyone he asked for help had been bought out by Shaw.” Charles straightened in his chair. “Turns out he wasn’t the only child that had gone missing in the past few months.”

“I-” Charles frowns as he seems to be trying to find the words to say. “The British government hired me to keep tabs on mutants. On people like us. They wanted a database, and when I went through it there were thirteen missing children. Taken in the last four months from all over the world.”

“Taken?” Erik frowns, he didn’t remember any others in the camps. Not people like him. Normal, human people that had the same things done to them certainly but none like him, now Schmidt had- “Were there any other investigations?”

“It was a strange thing, the first parents I spoke to had no idea that they even had a child. They called me mad and politely or not so politely asked me to leave. There were missing pictures, changed rooms. Some houses I’d been in before and there was no memory of me or their missing child.”

“Another mutant did that?” Erik frowns because, why would another mutant help Schmidt? Not after what the man did to him, to people like him. 

Charles nods. “It was the same until I ran into Jean’s mother. One look I could tell that she remembered Jean. The only thing that they had done to her was give her a very large sum of money.”

Erik snorts as he flips another photograph over, some people.

“Precisely. From what I gathered from her I was able to track a shipping company that had been importing ‘bears’ to Russia. The shipping logs led us here and we found Jean. There are fifteen facilities all below the countryside along with a few others that we haven’t discovered yet. No one has seen Shaw, no one can prove at all that he’s done the things he has. There have never been any survivors we’ve found.”

“Not until the children,” Erik swallows as he sees the look in Charles eyes, he does want something from him, but not what Erik imagined. “Not until me.” 

Charles produces another file, but this one doesn’t have a name on it, just a number in neat type on the front. A number that Erik sees every time he raises his arm whether he’s in long sleeves or not. 

“There was never a name with the files we found.” Charles says as Erik flips open the file to see a picture of himself, blank faced and thin. “Just the number. We assumed that you, like most of Shaw’s subjects, had died.”

Erik closes the file, trying to not let his hand shake as the coin whines in his pocket. The song rises higher and higher until, Charles clears his throat and when Erik looks up it’s the first time that he realizes that the man's eyes are so blue.

“You know an awful lot about me, Professor. But I don’t know much about you.”

Charles smiles a smile that Erik hasn’t seen yet on his face. “We have all night.”

◢♘♞◣

Charles waits until the sound of the truck fades in the distance. Darwin volunteered to drive Erik back to his base. The man had offered to walk, honestly, in this snow at this time of night? He picks his way back through the kitchen where he was absolutely not watching the truck drive off. Sometime when he was downstairs Ororo must have gotten carried up. He slinks up the steps as quietly as he can, listening to Hank snore as he peeks in the spare bedroom that Darwin has taken to calling the ‘nursery’. Jean is curled up in the middle of the mattress on the floor with Ororo tucked into the curve of her, still wrapped up in her blanket. Warren is sprawled against Jeans back, wings folded, and Charles pauses to gather the words of safety in his head, to draw them carefully around the three tiny flickers.

He feels Raven come up behind him, he tilts his head as she bumps shoulders. _I thought you were going to go to bed before you had to be at the base tomorrow?_

_I thought you’d be in bed because you smashed your head on a steering wheel, but I don’t see that happening._ Raven gives him the eyes as she slides her hand into the pocket of his sweater to curl around his fingers. _You haven’t told me why you’ve been hanging onto the kids and Hank. I thought they were supposed to move out when Alex did?_

 _They were, but there were... complications. I would have asked for your help if I’d known you were in the neighborhood._ Charles lets out a small sigh and leans against Raven, both of them holding each other up.

_What kind of complications?_

_Shaw is having the borders watched. Alex was able to get Piotr and Illyana through but after that the guards at the checkpoints doubled and Logan sent me a missive. The White Queen is on her way._

_Shit. Seriously? I thought she didn’t leave Vegas._ Raven’s eyes widen in the dark as she tugs him away from the children, back down the stairs.

_Apparently when Shaw says ‘jump’ she’s there to say ‘how high?’. It’s unsettling. I’ve been keeping my ear to the ground for any sign of her, she was last seen in Krasnodar, but that was a week ago._

_I’ll check my contacts._ Raven stretches as they come to the dining room table where she shoves over half of Hank’s gutted generator before she sits. “So, what did you think of the Lieutenant?”

“He seemed nice.” Charles smiles as he sits down next to his sister, ignoring her as she rolls her eyes. “If you want my approval for giving him information you aren’t going to get it. He’s useful yes, but his methods are much more deadly than ours.”

“Are you surprised? You’ve seen his file. What Shaw did to him.”

“I saw, but atrocities do not fix atrocities.” 

Raven rolls her eyes, “You know I just love your professor voice.”

“Oh you missed it, I can tell.” Charles smiles as he leans forward to put his elbows on the table. “He’s interesting. I dare say Warren could have been picked up by someone much worse.”

“Interesting?” Raven snorts as she flops over the kitchen table. “Yeah right, you totally got a genetics boner the second you saw him reform the fence. I saw you light up like it was your birthday.”

“I did not!” Charles hisses. “And don’t say, ugh, ‘boner’. There are children in this house.”

“Yeah, and you’re one of them,” Raven laughs as Charles makes a face.

He’s missed her. It had been too long since he’d gotten moments like this, teasing at the kitchen table. At first he’d blamed the blasted work. They were always in different countries or on different missions but... he couldn’t stop Raven from growing up. She had grown up without him, in this maelstrom of undercover espionage and a new dawning of the mutant race. It’s the largest regret he has, tucked away in the trophy case of his mind. Something shining that tells him he missed when Raven turned from that giggling insecure blonde girl into this. This magnificent blue jewel.

“What have you been up to?” Charles grins as Raven bounces in her seat.

“Oh, pretty much doing paperwork in Russian and eating horrible food. They’ve got me watching a Russian general who was signing off on some very strange shipments.”

“How strange?” Charles frown as he stands, goes to putter in the kitchen for tea.

“Like importing bears strange.”

Charles turns at once on his heel. “He cleared off on having the children brought in?”

Raven nods. “I think he’s also the one that’s closing your borders. I can rustle up some paperwork but I won’t be able to get the correct clearance for it to be filled out and my handwriting forgery is sort of weak. We’d need Sean. Or well...”

“Well?” Charles asks as he fills the teapot.

“The Lieutenant could do it. It would even be mostly legal,” Raven smiles.

Charles makes a face. He’s not sure he wants to be indebted to man whose mind is as tangled and as sharp as Erik’s. “Do you think he would? Without significant bribery?”

“I think you’ll know what he’ll want,” Raven says as she stands and slides the teacup that Charles is fiddling with.

“I am not going to let him murder a person, regardless of who he is and what he’s done.”

“You might not have a choice,” Raven shakes her head. “He’s determined, and closing in. Unless you want to babysit him the entire time, he’s going to make a move.”

Charles nods. Erik was determined, that was part of why Charles flitted to his mind like a bee to a flower. Perhaps... Perhaps if he just made sure that any move Erik made would also benefit them. “Will you talk to him about getting the children across?”

Raven nods as she reaches on top of the refrigeration and pulls down the tin of biscuits. “Really Charles? Shortbread, again?”

“You can’t expect me to cart around your favorite biscuits when I don’t know you’re even in the country.”

“That didn’t stop you from having them in Brazil.”

Charles wrinkles his nose. “I was lonely. They reminded me of you.”

Raven smiles and Charles grins back at her. For a moment it’s like they’re home again. Like they never got into that black town car. Like they never signed their lives away.

◢♘♞◣

Erik isn’t woken by shouting. It’s quiet, it must have snowed again. He’d carefully dismantled the makeshift bed that had been put together for Warren when he’d gotten back. It was all business as usual after that. He gets up, stretches and stops. There’s a feather poking out from under his bed. He draws it out carefully, so as to not muss it. A brilliant white feather, with a touch of gold along the edge. He tucks it into his pocket alongside the coin after he dresses.

Charles had told him why he was here, but he’d very carefully left out any information that could lead Erik to the Shaw that they were chasing. The man had been wary enough after all. Erik wasn’t sure if he should be proud or disappointed. The mess hall is empty, save for Raven who is back to looking like Leni. She’s yawning as she flips through a report, fiddling with a spoon in one hand as if it were a knife.

He gets coffee and a small pastry before he sits down across from her. They don’t say anything at all. She must have stayed up most of the night with Charles. His sister, Erik can’t even imagine what it’s like to have a sibling. Someone that’s always there for you, bothering you, loving you. 

“The General is arriving today,” she comments, almost idly.

“Odd.” Erik says, staring into his coffee. “Did he say why?”

She shrugs. “Must be an inspection.” 

Erik nods as the mess door opens and the men start to filter in. Right. So Charles had done his mind tricks. It would be easy enough to pretend that he didn’t know why the General was there. He supposes the man would be frustrated but they couldn’t be blamed for sending a report that no one remembers. The men are laughing, chatty, but not a single one mentions a little boy with wings.

The day is long, like usual. Boring, as usual. He sends the men on drills, hoping to sharpen their skills so the General will at least be mildly impressed. The men shuffled as he explained it, it didn’t make sense to them anymore, such a high ranking official visiting their tiny base.

He can feel the hum of the jeep ten minutes before it arrives. He’s just put on his coat and hat, shut his door behind him when something like adrenaline floods his mind.

 _Erik! I need you to listen to me!_ He blinks, grabbing the doorway for support. Charles’ voice is frantic. _You need to get out of there right now. I won’t be able to shield you for long. Please get out, take Raven and get out!_

Erik is moving quickly, almost jogging down the hall before he slams the back door open. Raven is running down the steps to the Major’s quarters, her eyes wide with fear. She reaches out and grabs his hand as he comes up to her, dragging him behind her as they go. They’re sprinting by the time they hit the back fence, spurred on by the sheer panic in Charles’ voice, and his hand is outstretched, parting the metal so they don’t have to stop. It isn’t until they’re through and the fence is sealed again that Raven slows, he sprint turning into a more lithe stance. Sneaking along the fence, still dragging him behind her as if he’ll run off before he knows what’s going on.

It isn’t until they can see the road that she freezes. The jeep is coming up it, four people. The driver, the Major, the General and... Erik can feel a metal clasp, a zipper. A woman in white, wearing a tall furred hat, sitting next to the General. 

“Shit.” Raven hisses. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”

He doesn’t know what he’s going to do. The General is going to show up at the base and Erik is going to be missing. He needs to go back or... Raven is stiff, afraid as she swallows and looks at him. She can’t stay here. He can’t stay here. 

“Come on,” Erk breathes, turning to go back through the woods. It’s only a ten minute walk to a place where they can get horses. 

Darwin is pacing outside the farmhouse as Erik rides up, Raven hadn’t told him what was going on. In fact she hadn’t said much expect to complain that she had to ride ‘bitch’ behind him on the stallion that they had acquired.

“Are you two alright?” Is the first thing out of his mouth as he stops to take the reins from Erik. That was not a very promising sentence.

“We’re fine. I think Charles shielded us well enough that she didn’t sense us.” Raven said as she slides from behind Erik to the ground.

“Can someone please tell me what’s going on? I just abandoned my squadron and I would like to know why.”

“Emma Frost.” Raven grits her teeth. “The woman in the stupid hat, that’s Shaw’s pet telepath.”

Erik feels his blood run cold. Shaw had a telepath? A person like Charles?

“She would have read our minds,” he breathes as he dismounts.

“And we all would have been fucked.”

Shaw would have known he was there, he would have... He would have known where the children were, where Charles was. Erik swallows, shakily as he lets Darwin lead to horse to the barn, as he follows Raven who is stalking across the yard, straight for the farm house

◢♘♞◣

Charles is mildly aware that Erik and Raven have arrived. He’s sitting cross legged on the nursery floor with Jean curled up in his lap, her skinny arms hugging his chest. He’s not entirely sure when she came in, her slight telepathy curling around his, trying to help him bring Raven home safe. He’d called for Raven first, then suddenly there was the tang of metal that had been in the back of his mind all night. He couldn’t leave Erik there, not where Emma could get ahold of him. Where Shaw could take him back to the white rooms full of blood and metal.

He’s building the shields carefully, wrapping up the children in an invisible net. Emma wouldn’t know what she was looking for, unless she specifically looked for the ‘absence’ of minds she wouldn’t find a thing. He wraps up Jean and Ororo. He wraps up Warren then Hank. He doesn’t need to shield Darwin, thank goodness. The mutants ability keeps him safe from anything. He wraps up Raven carefully, mindful about how she organizes herself. Then he wraps a shield around Erik, he should make him forget about them. He should have left him at the base, wiped his mind and... The regrets turn into protection, a warmth curving around his colors.

Finally Charles shields himself, carefully tucking all his tendrils away where Emma can’t stumble upon them. When he finally opens his eyes, it’s dark. Jean is asleep in his lap, her face tucked against his neck. His arms come up automatically to hold her as he blinks. Erik is sitting across from him. A oil lamp in between them, lighting up the nursery with flickering shadows. Erik is twirling a feather between his fingers as Charles slowly comes back to himself. 

It’s like the stories that the nanny used to tell him and Raven. The trickster appearing in the firelight, bringing tokens of blood and change. He thinks he tries to say something but Raven appears behind Erik. Raven, Raven and Coyote. Erik is taking Jean from his arms and that’s... That’s fine. That’s okay, Erik would never hurt her. Charles is carefully pulled to his feet by Raven and he mumbles something, he wants to tell her that it’s okay.

“What’s wrong with him?” He hears Erik as as the man tucks Jean under the blankets with Warren who is sprawled out across the mattress.

He makes an indignant noise, because nothing is wrong with him. Erik should try to do what he did and not... This. Do. Did. Charles thinks he giggles but Raven just shoves him up against Erik who is taking him by the elbow and helping his sister steer him down the hall.

“He’s fine. He just spent too much time in other people's minds. We’ll get him downstairs and get some tea in him. He’ll be fine after that.”

Oh tea. He likes tea. Tea always made everything better. It was one of the things he learned at Oxford. Tea makes everything better. The train is always late when you’ve somewhere important to go. Never forget your umbrella on a Monday. He thinks he asks Raven if it’s Monday. She laughs, which isn’t an answer and lets Erik half drag, half carry him down the stairs and steer him to a kitchen chair.

He’s blinking again, staring at Erik who is yelling at Raven in Russian but she’s just laughing. Oh, Erik has a hold of both his hands and he turns when Charles tightens his fingers around his.

“Charles?”

“Oh,” Charles smiles. It is Erik and he is here, holding Charles hands to ground him. “Hello. I’d hoped you were safe.”

Erik makes a face that Charles can’t quite decipher as Raven comes walking across the kitchen balancing a mismatched teacup and saucer. “See, I told you he’d come around faster if you held onto his hands. I wasn’t just saying that to embarrass you. I told you I could do it but no, you can’t make tea.”

“I’ll learn,” Erik grits through his teeth as Raven sets the teacup down next to Hank’s bundle of wires.

“Are you with us, sunshine?” She asks and Charles nods slowly as he unclenched his hands from Erik’s, untangling their fingers so he can curl his around his teacup.

“I’m sorry,” Charles finally gets out. “I didn’t sense Emma until it was almost too late. I could have shielded you where you were but I panicked.”

“It’s fine,” Raven waves her hand in the air. “Erik knows how to hustle so we got out of there really quick.”

Charles nods as Raven squeezes his shoulder. He had been on his way to the basement when there had been a ripple across the back of his mind. He’d been keeping a loose net over the area for other telepaths but... Frost had been so close before he’d noticed her. He was out of practice. Too many days in places he felt safe, going over genetics journals with Hank, eating dinner with Alex and Darwin, or wandering the wooded area behind the Mi6 facility with Scott or Sean in tow.

Emma was here and she was more dangerous than any of the other mutants that had crossed his path.

“Do we have a plan?” Raven asks, hopping up to sit on the kitchen table.

“We need a plan? If she’s that dangerous she needs to be taken out, and quickly.”

Charles blinks as he looks up at Erik who has crossed his arms over his chest. So much of his mind is in black and white. Action and reaction. But underneath that knot of rage is worry. He had to abandon his men, he had to abandon his mission. Life’s work wasted for a... feather? Charles swallows, he needs to keep to his own mind for the time being.

“It’s not that easy to get the jump on a telepath,” Raven frowns. “If she senses us at all she is going to tear us a new one. I, for one, do not want to spend the rest of my days a drooling vegetable because I tried to do something stupid.”

Charles lets out a sigh. “We need a plan if we’re to even get close to her- Ah, you don’t have to be involved in this, you know.”

He looks apologetically at Erik who rolls his eyes so dramatically that Charles thinks he might have learned it from Raven. “I am already involved in this. The sooner I can get back to what I was doing the better, and if this Frost person is going to get in my way I am going to have to deal with her sooner or later.”

“Right then.” Charles takes a sip of his tea. “I can’t permanently keep tabs on her without her figuring it out. If we can find out if she’s staying on base then...” Charles frowns. “I can keep a small number of us shielded at a time from her in close proximity. But only one or two. We might be able to send Darwin but if anyone spots him...”

“I can go back to the base,” Erik says. “If you can shield me I can see if she’s still there or if she’s moved on.”

That might be dangerous but, workable. Charles nods. “If you don’t think your flight this afternoon is going to cause too many questions...”

“It won’t.” Erik shrugs as he leans back. “I come and go as I please. I don’t tend to disappear during the day but I can make an excuse as long as the Major has moved on.”

Charles nods. He was uncomfortable getting Erik involved with them so quickly but... Well, if he hadn’t wanted to he would have taken care of the man from the start. It’s decided that Erik would be the best for reconnaissance since he knows his men better than Raven, they can’t do too much until they’ve found out where Frost has gone. Charles lets Raven bully him upstairs and stick him in the hammock that he’s been sleeping in since he gave up his mattress to the children.

The house is hushed but Charles can’t help but check on the shields he’s wrapped around its inhabitants. Hank’s mind is with the children, he must have gone up there to put Ororo to bed and crawled in with them. It happens more often than not, Ororo is fascinated by him and rarely lets him put her down when she has his attention.

Darwin is in the barn, the whisper absence of his mind the only thing that lets Charles know where he is. He’s probably still trying to fix the jeep, Darwin rarely sleeps when they’re in a new place. It’s only when they’re back in London that he sleeps solidly, when he knows where Alex and Scott are. 

It takes him a moment to find Raven and Erik, down in the living room. They’re close together, minds whirring in hushed tones. Planning, talking, blood red and anxiety. Charles breathes in a tight breath. Erik’s worry is palpable, a monster in the dark that always has the same name. He shields Erik better, cutting parts of the worry and rage away from him. He doesn’t want Jean picking up on it and it isn’t the man’s fault what he thinks. That was Charles’ first lesson. People think things without thinking.

Emotion was separate from rational thought. Id, ego, super-ego. Charles closes his eyes, let’s the red and the sharpness wash over him as he works his way through Freud, through Jung and falls asleep wrapped in barbed wire and the taste of ash.

◢♘♞◣

Erik toys with the coin in the dark. He hasn’t bothered to try and find a light since Raven nodded off on the couch he was leaning against. He can sense the metal everywhere, her bracelet, the rivets on Darwin’s shoes, Hank’s zipper’s on his sleeves, the hooks and buttons of overalls wrapping the children up against the cold. He pauses at Charles’ watch, dangling in the open air. A hand hung off a mattress or the like.

They couldn’t get the children out of the country. Not with the sudden fear of Frost, of Shaw guarding the borders like a hawk, waiting to swoop down and carry the mice away. Erik goes over her explanation again and again. He could help them, they needed his help. He had assisted people here and there. Families from the war, lost children and grieving wives. But he’d never held this much power, he could get the paperwork they needed without a question or a forgery. They could get across the borders, into Moscow and be on a plane where Shaw could do nothing. Safe. ‘That’s all we want’ Raven had said. They just want the children to be safe and in exchange...

In exchange they would give him Shaw.

He doesn’t know if Charles knows what Raven has given him. If she’ll distract her brother in the end, because Charles believes this man should pay, but he believes it in the way of the good and just. This man should have a trial, he should be locked away, forgotten but never forgiven. He doesn’t think the man should be erased off the face of the Earth where he will never again pollute it with his presence. He doesn’t think that there should never be a moment where Shaw has sway over anything, his fingers in trade or war, people doing things in his name. A shadow can still do damage no matter what Charles thinks. Look at Erik. He was more than capable and for years he had only been a number.

Charles is a white knight and Erik is the knife in the dark. The sooner Charles realizes that, the sooner they can live up to their potential. The sooner they can stay out of each other’s way, because a knight has no use for a knife in the long run.

Erik dozes, his back against the couch as Raven grumbles in her sleep, curling this way and that. It’s nearing dawn when the kitchen door opens and Darwin enters, hands covered in grease with a frown. He pauses on the threshold into the living room, his eyes a silver sheen in the dark like a cats.

“Man, we have other beds,” he whispers and Erik shrugs as he stands, moving Raven’s hand from where it’s flopped on his shoulder.

“I could ask you why you aren’t asleep, but that would just be the same answer.”

Darwin huffs before he grins like he’s had a brilliant idea. “Hey, you’re good with metal, right?”

The look Erik gives him is usually reserved for the stupid comments that his men make when they don’t think he’s listening. 

The jeep is fixed by the time Charles pushes the barn door open, his hair mussed and carrying another cup of tea. He smiles when he sees Erik’s hands covered in grease and the jeep with its engine rumbling quietly. It feels like a sunrise, like a light in the dark and it makes Erik swallow. Charles is a force of nature, and he just needs to keep a level head.

“Are you ready to move out?” Erik asks, they had decided that Charles would go with him, he’d be able to keep a better shield on him while the others guarded the children. 

Charles makes a face, “Patience, breakfast first.”

Breakfast which turns out to be sort of like eating at the mess with the men. If you compared all the running and shouting. Warren squeals and demands to eat his breakfast perched on Erik’s knee. He ends up having to eat the eggs and porridge that Hank has placed in front of him with one hand, the other keeping a hold of the base of one of Warren’s wings so he doesn’t tumble to the floor. Charles seems to be amused by this as he wipes Ororo’s face and shouts at Raven to eat the ham she’s found who-knows-where out on the porch before Hank sees her and starts making faces.

It’s a brilliant relief to be out in the quiet of the jeep after all of Warren’s hugs and Raven’s warnings to not get her brother maimed or she’ll kill him. He’s not sure how he has ended up in the middle of all of this hugging and threatening. They don’t seem to function like government agents should. He’s used to the undercover aspect of everything, where no one is who they really are. That’s where he fits in best. Not here, with Charles who is wearing the coat with the seventeen brass buttons and slouched low in his seat like he takes drives with Erik all the time.

They don’t speak during the journey back to base, Erik doesn’t know if it’s too quiet but halfway there Charles had closed his eyes in concentration. Erik is loathe to interrupt what might be super important telepathic... some things for the sake of small talk. He leaves Charles in the jeep when the man nods just as the thought crosses his mind.

He slips through the fence easily, making his way around the back of the barracks almost lazily. He can smell the sweet scent of smoke and sure enough he turns the corner to see Alenko and Ranheim chuckling about something while sharing a cigarette. They both scramble to attention when they see him.

“Lieutenant! We thought you were dead,” Ranheim nods as Alenko stubs out the cigarette in the snow.

“That seems like jumping to conclusions. How did the inspection go?”

They share a look, like they want to ask him. They want to know what’s going on but he keeps his gaze level and eventually Alenko shrugs. “General Karapov was here, he ended up yelling at the Major. They kept asking us crazy questions and there was a woman in white, he said she was an ambassador, but she didn’t get out of the car.” 

“Crazy questions?” Erik asks as he inspects his nails. 

“About angels, a little boy with wings.” Ranheim frowns as if he can’t believe the ridiculousness. “He said that Alenko sent a report, but we have the report we sent. There was nothing in it about this madness.”

“It must have been tampered with before it reached the Major.”

Both men nod, “That is what we said. That was when the yelling started.”

Erik takes a deep breath, he might as well ask. “Did he ask about me?”

“We checked your room-”

“-and when you weren’t there-”

“-we thought you were doing secret things. Like-”

“-you do sometimes. So we told the General that you were sick.”

Alenko nods, “Vomit everywhere, it was very terrible.”

Erik lets out the breath he was holding as he raises an eyebrow, “Secret things?”

Both men nod as if he should know exactly what they’re talking about. They converse quickly in Polish before they turn back to him. “Hunting Nazi’s, setting fires, saving widows, that kinds of things.”

Erik tries hard to not rub his hands over his face, he would be more angry if he hadn’t actually done everything they’d just listed over the course of his life. “Is that what you talk about after lights out?”

The pair of them nod vigorously as Erik rubs his hand over his face, slipping his hat off to drag his fingers through his hair before he jams it back on his head. “Why on earth-? No, nevermind. I do not want to know. Look, I am going to have to disappear for a few days. Business.” They both grin when he says business and he’s not sure that any story they could make up would even be close to the real truth. “Tell Bergman that he is in charge.”

They make a face but they nod, “How long?”

“Two days,” Erik says.

He’s never been wrong before, he just has to hope that this time is the same. He turns to go, there’s some paperwork he can go through, maybe check in with the others-

“Oh, Lieutenant!” Erik turns as Ranheim walks forward a step. “The General said he would take the ambassador to our Eastern base. Do we have an eastern base?” 

East. He hadn’t gone east yet. “He is probably referring to that outpost by Yemchel.” Ranheim nods as he heads back out the front of the base where Belyakov is asleep and into the treeline. 

Charles is leaning against the jeep when he comes out of the trees, the jeep’s engine starting up before he’s even touched the car.

“She isn’t-”

“East,” Erik says as he slides into the driver's seat and bites the smile from his face when Charles just scrambles into the passenger seat next to him with only an eyeroll.

◢♘♞◣

Charles is usually a rather docile passenger, but he’s never been in a vehicle driven by a mutant with a complete control over metal. Every bump he braces for hits him differently than he expects it and when they come to a ditch, Charles finds himself with his eyes screwed shut as they thump over the hole with barely a jerk.

“We should get the others-” He bounces in his seat as Erik jerks the jeep dangerously close to the treeline along something he isn’t even sure is a road.

“She might have already moved on. Didn’t you want to catch her?”

“I remember talking about having a real plan...”

“This is a real plan,” Erik says offhandedly as they breeze by tree after tree and Charles is really starting to wonder how much of it is Erik and how much is really the old jeep.

“I am almost certain that you are using the loosest definition of ‘real’ and ‘plan’.”

He can’t say he wasn’t expecting this. It was like there was a light on behind Erik’s eyes when he returned from the base the low chant of east, east, Schmidt, Shaw... Charles could hardly argue with a lifetime of motivation. Well, okay, he could. He could do things to Erik’s mind that would defy morals and generosity but well- This was rather exciting. Erik was dangerous in a different way that Charles had experienced in his life and he was well, quite unusual himself. 

“What I am trying to say- Stop the car,” Charles feels the ripple of minds and thankfully the car jerks to a halt, the engine cutting out before Charles has to force Erik to do it. Six minds out in the snow. Scouts, past them was... Hmm, that was an unfortunate number. 

“What is it?” Erik hisses, leaning over to peer across the hood of the car as if he could see past the half a mile where Charles sensed the others.

“Six men, they’re in formation. They’re scouting ahead, there’s a building? It’s rather heavily garrisoned.”

“There’s an old manor to the east, it’s abandoned or at least that was the assumption.”

“That must be it. I think there’s- Erik!”

But he’s already out of the car, sprinting towards the road and Charles is scrambling out of the jeep after him. He can’t just let him go alone but it isn’t his job to deny the man. He just wished that he’d settle down and form a nice well rounded plan. Charles is trying his best to not wheeze as he sprints after Erik. He really needed to do more field work, he had spent all of last summer cataloguing and making house visits. He was getting flabby for goodness sake. He skids to a stop just in time to see Erik’s hand raise, instantly the three shapes that were on the horizon crumple to the ground. Soldiers being knocked out by their own weapons, dragged down by buttons and flung into trees. 

He trails after Erik, putting anyone that remains conscious to sleep, erasing the last few seconds. He catches up to Erik outside the front gate of a large dilapidated mansion. The windows are boarded up and it looks like the entire left side of the building is collapsing in on itself. It is also crawling with soldiers in black coats that bear no insignia.

“How many?” Erik asks, only barely out of breath.

Charles does a sweep while keeping them tightly shielded. “Thirty-seven along with Frost and the General.”

Erik nods, taking a step forward before Charles grabs his sleeve. “We should get the other’s.”

“What?” Erik’s smile is teasing and Charles is swallowing, his fingers loosening on the man’s sleeve. “You’ve never fought thirty-seven men before?”

“Not at the same time,” Charles frowns. 

“Can you take Frost?” Erik asks and his eyes are clear, serious, no trace of teasing left on his face.

Charles nods, of course he could. He just needed a proper moment.

“Then you take Frost and I will handle the rest.”

Erik is off again, Charles a breath behind him as the man raises his hands like a conductor. Erik is laying soldiers out with a brilliantly abandon. Bullets freeze in mid air, slamming back into the ground, making men scatter before they’re knocked out or dragged away by barbed wire. He’s efficient. He’s terrifying. It’s sickly fascinating. They clear the front lawn in a matter of seconds. Both of them are pelting down an empty hall when Charles senses a light almost surprised question. He slams into Frost’s conscious mind as hard as he can just as Erik flings his hand out, a door cracking and crumbling in front of them.

Frost is staggering to her feet as the General is pulling a gun that gets yanked out of his hand. Charles just needs to- There’s a shimmer and suddenly Frost’s form changes into a brilliant shine and he loses his grip on her mind. He thinks he makes a noise as she vaults the table in front of them but he can see the plan in Erik’s mind. A reflection of color as they both surge forward and grab her arms. She’s unyielding and angry as they slam her up against a wall. In a split second there are wires bursting from the plaster behind her, rebar shooting up from the ground and pinning her like a butterfly.

There is shouting in Russian and Charles takes a moment to knock out the General who is trying to pull his gun from the iron stove that it’s stuck to. He blinks as Erik turns into a bloom of white hot rage. He shouldn’t have turned his attention, Erik is intent on destroying Frost, the rebar tightening until the diamond form of her cracks.

“Erik!”

His hand is coming to his head but Erik stops, once again before Charles is forced to play his hand. Frost’s diamond form shifts, fades and Charles wraps himself around her mind, smothering out anything that she could do. He sees everything. He sees the future and it’s horrible.

◢♘♞◣

Charles is silent the ride back, his hands making fists in his coat. Erik tossed Frost unceremoniously in the back of the jeep after Charles knocked her out and they wrapped her in a blanket. Shaw meant to destroy humanity, to bring the rise of the mutant race. A noble but twisted goal. The forest flashes by and Erik tries to not think about the bunkers that Shaw has built. Bunkers full of nuclear weapons. Ships and submarines full of the downfall of civilization as they knew it. Erik supposed that if all the humans died and the mutants survived it wouldn’t be too horrible. Of course that would leave a handful of them on an empty planet. He probably wouldn’t be able to get coffee after that.

Darwin is in the barn when Erik pulls the jeep in. He raises his eyebrows questioningly at Charles’ paleness. “I was about to send the cavalry out for you two- What the hell man?”

He’s looking at Erik who has just hauled Frost out of the back and thrown her over his shoulder. “What? You think we should leave her out here?”

“Is that Frost?” Darwin blinks as he turns to Charles who is following Erik to the house. 

“I must admit, the man is capable of getting results.”

Erik tries his hardest to not preen as he opens the kitchen door. Raven looks at him for two seconds, along with all the children staring at him with wide eyes before the first thing out of her mouth is, “Where’s Charles?”

“He’s coming. Where do you want her?”

“Basement please,” Charles says, coming in behind him and greeting the children with kisses and pats as if Erik dragging around unconscious mutants was a normal occurrence.  
Everyone is staring when he comes back upstairs after making a pair of cuffs from the desk lamp down there and securing the woman to the faded and sunken couch. But of course Warren slides down from the chair he was perched on to come hug Erik’s knees until he was forced to pick him up so he could continue to the dining room to sit on the vacated chair. 

“Well, what happens now?” He’s knows he’s far too smug, Hank is frowning but Raven is grinning and Charles is trying very hard to not smile.

“Well, now we have a very dangerous telepath in the house with several children,” Hank almost growls.

“So, take them out of the country and do the same with Frost.” He leans back, adjusting Warren in his arms as he pulls a sheaf of papers from inside his coat, setting them with a thump in the middle of the book of fairytales that was open on the table.

He’d grabbed the identification papers before he’d left the base, filling them out using the perfect approximation of the Major’s stamp that he’d fashioned out of a box of paperclips and a metal thermos. Raven’s eyes light up as the frown slides off of Hank’s face. Charles is blinking, like he didn’t see it coming. Erik supposes he should be pleased, surprising a telepath. 

Most of the table starts talking at once, Raven snatching up the papers like they were a trophy waving them in the air as Charles tries to quiet her. Hank is going on about the authenticity of the documents and Darwin is trying to instill the idea that Frost is still in their basement and should they really all be shouting?

These people were supposed to be professionals, honestly. Erik waits a moment before Jean scrambles off her chair, picking up the book and Ororo who is grabbing fistfulls of crackers from the plate on the table. He follows the children upstairs into their little bedroom, where Jean plops Ororo on the mattress and Erik sets Warren down next to her. He lets himself be tugged down by little hands and regards Warren’s bright blue eyes.

“Does that mean I can go home? Raven said we needed paper.” 

Erik nods, “Yes, that means you can go home, eule.”

Warren grins as Erik reaches out to smooth down his curls. The sound is so low that Erik almost doesn’t hear it. “I don’t want to go home.”

He hasn’t heard Jean speak since he’s met her, a quiet little shadow slipping along between everyone else. Now she looks terrified and he remembers Charles telling him about her mother. He raises his hand, stilling it as she flinches.

“You don’t have to go back there. We can find you somewhere safe to be.”

“You can live with me!” Warren chirps. “We have lots of room and mama would love you. She said she always wanted a little girl to go with me.”

His voice carries the unflinching surety of youth, and who knows? Maybe Warrens mama would love a little girl. She was used to Warren and wings. Why not quiet Jean? Jean moves, crawling across the mattress to hug Warren to her chest. She’s crying and Ororo stands, frowning and trying to hug her as well, getting crumbs everywhere.

Erik sighs, this was far more than he signed on for.

◢♘♞◣

Charles makes his way upstairs after all the shouting is over. Raven had been smugly triumphant, it had been proof for her that she had made a good decision in helping Erik. He thought that Darwin was still wary of the man, he doesn’t fully trust people that are so quick to violence and Charles concedes that he has a point. Hank is as distrustful as he is with most anyone he meets. The fear that someone is always out to get them, embarrass them, hurt them, hurt him, is a constant black line through his thoughts that only faded when he was working.

He’d checked on Frost, making sure that she was still quite asleep. He could probably maintain that for another twelve hours if he had to before it started to get dangerous. Darwin was already in the attic, contacting Alex and Sean, organizing times. The papers Erik had produced would work brilliantly and without them having to worry about the white queen anymore they could move forward like Charles had originally intended. 

There’s soft voices coming from the children's room, Erik disappearing with them when the shouting started, a thing for which Charles was quite grateful. He stops in the doorway to all of the children piled into Erik’s lap, the poor man hasn’t even gotten his coat off, and all of them frowning over the book of fairy tales.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Erik grumbles as Jean rolls her eyes. “Bears don’t live in houses, they have dens in caves.” 

“Maybe they mean den and not house.” Warren supplies as he flips the pages as Erik holds the book open in front of them.

“They don’t eat porridge either.”

Jean sighs and curls tighter around Ororo, reaching out to gently smack Warren’s hands away from the book as she flips the pages back and points to something on the page. Erik lets out a long suffering grumble before he begins to read again, uninterrupted for a few seconds before Warren tugs on his collar.

“Maybe they’re mutants bears. Like Hank.” 

“Hank isn’t a bear.”

“Uh huh,” Warren starts. Which prompts Ororo to contradict him because Hank is a ‘kitty’. 

Erik reaches up to rub the bridge of his nose in the middle of shrieks of “Kitty!” and “Bear!” while Jean just snuggles against his side, utterly content.

“I hope you two aren’t going to argue past dinner, Darwin has made a rather lovely smelling meat pie,” Charles offers from the doorway.

Three heads immediately pop up at the mere mention of food and Charles doesn’t miss the look of relief that crosses Erik’s face. “There, food. Go bother Darwin.” 

There’s a stampede that Charles sidesteps as Erik rolls himself off the mattress, shooing Warren to go along with the girls. 

“Don’t say anything,” Erik frowns as he sets the book of fairytales down on the bed. 

“What would I say?” Charles grins.

“Something to go along with that ridiculous smile you have.” 

He’ll admit it’s a rather fond smile, Erik doesn’t have the outer demeanor of a person that likes children. But Charles knows the way his mind fades to soft pastels, when he’s around them, the lilacs and the creams. 

“Am I at least allowed to thank you for the identity papers?”

Erik rolls his shoulder in an uncertain gesture. “I was already planning to get Warren out of here. No sense in not sending the others with him.”

“Yes, well,” Charles is rather terrible at accepting things. Raven always said he was too trusting which then made him second guess everything. “You didn’t have to.”

“And you didn’t have to let me remember that I met other mutants.”

Charles freezes in the doorway as Erik steps out past him into the hallway. It isn’t often that someone acknowledges exactly what he’s capable of. It was like a superstition back in London. If you didn’t talk about it maybe then it would never have to be done to you. He’s too surprised to move, and when their shoulders brush as Erik leaves Charles tries to not shudder at the brilliant possibilities. Erik is a man of many colors. There are endless worlds inside him if he would just look beyond barbed wire and color red. 

Charles follows him, an unavoidable pull.

◢♘♞◣

Erik is able to grab dinner and hide out in the barn, away from the shouting with full mouths and clatter of sliverware on chipped plates. Darwin is an excellent cook, it’s been months since he’s had anything that hadn’t been stamped ‘military grade’ on the side of the box it came in.

He hides up in the loft, looking out over the frozen landscape. He rolls a cigarette as he regards an aging radio tower off in the distance, crumpled at an angle. He can hear Charles muttering, feel the warm question of him as he finds him in the loft. It’s strange, having the telepath around, there always seems to be a sort of warmth coming off of him. A feeling of safety and contentment. Erik doesn’t know if Charles projects the feeling on purpose or if it’s just his nature to feel that way. 

“How on earth did you get up there?”

Erik smiles around his cigarette, it was true there wasn’t a ladder in the barn. He closes his eyes and hums, pulling Charles up by the metal on his clothes, the buttons on his jacket singing merrily as Charles squeaks.

He listens to the scramble as Charles finds his feet again and chuckles at the frown Charles is giving him when he opens his eyes. The man on his hands and knees on the loft floor. “You could have at least warned me.”

“You’re a telepath. Read my mind.” Erik grins as Charles crawls over to settle next to Erik in a heap.

“Are you out here hiding from three small children?” Charles is amused and Erik decides to not question the warmth it makes him feel. He is so very rarely amusing to people. 

“One can only take so much hugging,” he grumbles as he lets out a breath of sweet smelling smoke through his teeth.

Charles is grinning and Erik freezes as the man steals his cigarette, brushing his fingers and taking a drag off it with a critical look on his face. Erik almost expects him to cough, but he doesn’t, he ends up letting the smoke out in a series of short laughs when he catches Erik’s expression. “Oh honestly, I’ve smoked before. Ugh, don’t tell Raven, she’ll have my head.”

“I’m surprised she lets you out anywhere by yourself,” Erik remarks dryly as he watches Charles smoke away the last of his tobacco. 

“I say that to myself every morning. You know it’s not that I’m not trustworthy-” Charles frowns, moving his hand as Erik tries to get his cigarette back. Ah, so that’s how it was going to be.

“Darwin said that you are a trouble magnet. You need to find all trouble as soon as possible.” Erik hisses as he makes an abortive attempt to snatch Charles’ arm. He’s quicker than Erik thought he’d be.

“That is nonsense. I was not the one who ran headlong into a mansion filled with soldiers today.”

“I know my limits,” Erik grins as he tugs Charles suddenly by his belt buckle and gets his arm around his waist.

Charles makes a rather ridiculous sound of surprise as Erik leans on him, pinning him to the floor of the loft by his buttons as he reclaims his cigarette. “I am almost certain this is cheating.” Charles pouts.

“Oh?” Erik asks around a mouthful of smoke, “You didn’t come up here to see how many buttons of mine you could push without your powers?”

“Well, no, technically I came up here to talk about our next move and what you’d like to do but it’s been an awful long time since I’ve had a smoke and I got distracted.”

Those blue eyes should be illegal, as well as that pout. Erik takes another drag and settles more firmly on Charles, the man hasn’t shoved him off or used his powers to ‘cheat’. All he’s doing is making that terribly British wrinkled nose expression that Erik is starting to learn means he’s uncomfortable but only in a vague embarrassed sort of way. Erik has two days. He gave himself two days to find Shaw, two days before he disappears and never sees this man again. 

Charles stills when he leans forward and kisses him, shifting underneath him so he can return it. Ah, so he wasn’t misreading the signs. He wasn’t going to spend two days dancing around the wispy telepath trying to figure out what the man probably already knew. He kisses him throughly, pushing through every boundary he tests. Oh, this was going to be much better than he initially thought. He waits until Charles makes a sort of whimper before he breaks the kiss, leaving a parting nip on his bottom lip as Erik leans back on his elbows. He takes another drag of his cigarette and looks at Charles with an amused interest.

“So? What’s the plan?” 

Charles blinks, his eyes unfocused and his mouth wrecked but voice is venomous and it makes Erik grin. “You utter _wanker_!”

Well, he’d definitely won that round.

◢♘♞◣

Charles is trying very hard to not make a complete fool of himself but well, bloody man. He’d known the moment Erik had considered well, that he might be attractive. He didn’t think the man would just go ahead and help himself. Okay, that was a bit silly. He should have seen that coming.

They’re sitting up again, Charles dragged into Erik’s lap in the unspoken agreement of yes let's try this, sharing smoke and warmth. “We’ll be ready to move out tonight. The others we’re already at their end of the rendezvous, we just hadn’t been able to go ahead with anything with the threat of Emma around.”

“Where will we be meeting?” Erik’s mind is a chess board, black and white shifting pieces as Charles unravels their plan.

“There’s an old car factory out by the western crossing. We’ll meet Alex and Sean there. Hank has a rather particularly nice aircraft that he’s built, very low profile, should be able to get everyone out safely.”

“And then?”

“We are going to head south, where Emma intended to meet Shaw. I wouldn’t have been able to find the base by myself but I think with you...”

“You are going to use me as a metal detector.” Erik grumbles but he’s smiling around the butt of his cigarette. 

“You do make a lovely metal detector. We should be able to sweep the base, capture Shaw-” Charles cuts off when Erik blooms white hot again.

He wants to kill Shaw, he wants to kill him more than anything in the world and Raven said- Charles swallows, ah. He had wondered exactly what his sister had implied to have Erik working with them so quickly. It was silly, he should have known. There was only one driving force in Erik’s mind- “Killing him will not bring you peace.”

The words are out of Charles’ mouth so fast that he sees a flash of shock on Erik’s features before he smiles, something slow and sad. “Peace was never an option, Charles.”

It should be. That’s what Charles wants to say. It should be. Instead he reaches up and steals the cigarette from Erik who frowns at him but is rendered compliant when Charles kisses the side of his mouth. You can’t change people overnight. Charles should know, he’s tried. He wants to tell Erik that he can let go, Charles can know him inside and out, Erik could do the same. But the barn door slams open and Raven is shouting.

“Ugh! It smells disgusting in here! Charles you had better not be smoking!”

Whatever Charles was going to say is lost in his red faced look of a child being caught and Erik laughing so hard he ends up leaning over Charles, hiding his face against the back of his neck. Charles is trying to lick his fingers and put out the cigarette, a trick he never quite got the hang of while Raven is throwing things up in the loft and yelling. Erik hauls them both over the edge of the loft, Charles trying very hard to not flinch as he’s yanked about by his buttons and buckles while Raven scatters before they land on her.

Erik starts laughing even harder when Raven looks from him to Erik and back again before she makes a face of sibling disgust, the same he used to make at her when she decided to go ‘au naturale’ before throwing her hands in the air.

“I found them!” She announces, walking back out of the barn like she’s afraid to touch anything that they might have got their terrible ‘kissing’ germs on. “They were making out in the barn!”

Charles winces and hopes terribly that the children were upstairs or somewhere far from the open kitchen door. Erik is now leaning on him bodily, still chuckling, and Charles has the terrible urge to drop him in the snow.

◢♘♞◣

All in all it was a very profitable day. Erik is sprawled out on the couch, Warren had crawled up on him an hour ago as the rest of the group tried to pack all of Hank’s things together. Honestly, the beast had built a centrifuge from bits and bobs he’d found. Why did he need to haul all the things in the attic back to Moscow? There was some arguments about ‘data scales’ and that was when Erik had gone down to check on Emma, where he had found all three children staring at her like she was some sort of zoo display.

He’d herded them out into the kitchen where they ate the last of Charles’ biscuits and he spun several of the forks in the kitchen into bears and roses. Jean proved that she could make a tea cup float much to Warren’s dismay and then Ororo had clapped, making all the windows rattle with thunder and drawing everyone from upstairs down to see what was wrong. Erik tried his best to look completely innocent. He’s not sure he succeeded. 

Warren yawns and prods Erik in the chest until Erik shifts, scooting up into a sitting position with Warren curled in his lap. Charles is running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off, moving things in cases to the back door where Darwin just rolls his eyes at him and goes to find some room for it in the car. Charles pauses at the foot of the stairs, opening his mouth only for Erik to growl, “We’re already packed.” For the fourth time.

Erik lets the whole house whirl in activity around him as he dozed until Jean walks down the stairs and pokes him in the shoulder. He follows her out to the car with Warren tucked against his side. Ororo is perched on Hank’s shoulders as he mutters over the ridiculous pile of things strapped down in the back of the jeep. No one possibly needed this much baggage.

He doesn’t say anything though, just finds himself smashed in between Charles and Raven and covered in children. 

“There,” Charles grins. “Now we can go ahead.”

The look Erik gives him could melt steel.

◢♘♞◣

Charles watches Erik walk the perimeter of the car factory, Warren a few steps behind him. He had been quite utterly patient in the car, Charles had to give him that. Erik is a man of action and well, Charles and his little group usually take some time to get warmed up. He watches Erik pause, tilt his head towards the sky, ah, that should be Sean and Alex now

They had gotten through the border without any incident at all, the papers making sure that they weren’t even fully detained. Charles knows he could have faked documents but he wasn’t sure on all of the details and if anything had happened when all the children were with them well, he would never have forgiven himself.

The airplane is almost silent, and it lands only a few meters from Erik, who has his hand on top of Warren’s head. It almost blends into the night sky, but the belly of the plane opens to a pale light and Alex is standing there with a grin for Darwin and a wave for the rest of them. 

“What’s up trouble?” Darwin calls as he goes to meet him.

Hank is starting to unload the jeep as Charles makes his way forward, frowning as he only feels Alex’s mind. “Where’s Sean?”

Alex laughs as he tosses and arm around Darwin’s shoulders. “Okay, so you know how Hank was working on that glider suit for him-”

“And I told him not to mess with it until I could get back and finish my calibrations.” Hank growls.

“Yeah, well he messed with it. Got pretty high too before he clipped a tree and got sent to the infirmary with a broken collar bone.” 

“Oh, Sean.” Charles breathes, while Darwin bites back a chuckle.

“So now he’s grounded and on paperwork duty until he heals up. Scott’s following him around and opening doors for him. I think he likes being useful.”

“Well, at least something good came out of it.” Charles sighs, recalculating tactics now that they’re down a member. Of course they had Erik now, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue adapting.

“Hey blue!” Alex shouts as Raven jogs up, chasing Ororo. “What are you doing here? Shit isn’t that serious, is it?”

“No,” Raven shakes her head. “Charles and I just ended up having some overlapping interests and I was in the neighborhood.”

Alex looks up and grins, “Overlapping interests, right.”

Erik has approached, still cautiously guarding Warren. Oh hell, okay, so he had a type. That was no reason to poke fun at him every time someone remotely tall, capable, and handsome crossed their path. 

“This is Lieutenant Lensherr, he’s been a valuable ally to us.” 

“Nice to meet you.” Alex nods. “Now you want to get this show on the road or not?”

The chaos is lessened with Alex and Darwin working in tandem. Charles watches Erik crouched down in front of Warren, smoothing his hair off his face while the boy grabbed the front of his coat. Words are being exchanged, Erik speaking softly while Warren nods, a look of utter concentration on his face. Charles struggles with the urge to eavesdrop, but Hank is stepping up next to him, a twisting expression of apprehension on his face. 

“We’ve brought Emma but I’m not sure what to do if she wakes up mid flight.” Hank is looking from the figure that Darwin is carrying aboard to the children that are now clustering around Erik as Warren throws his arms around his neck.

“She should be alright for the duration of the flight and there will be agents to meet you in Moscow. Just, no delays.” Charles tries to be as reassuring as he can, he can hardly describe how he’s keeping Emma unconscious to someone that can’t do it themselves.

“Just give Jean the tranquilizer gun,” Erik says, sliding up behind him. “She’ll know if Emma is coming around.”

“We can’t give a child a gun, Erik-”

“I can do it.”

Charles blinks when Jean speaks. She’s got her hand tangled in one of Warren’s wings and the other hand on top of Ororo’s head. She spoke. The look she has is- brilliant. A bird wreathed in flame, so sure and confident. She is among her kind, her brothers and sisters. She is loved.

“See?” Erik says. “She’s more than capable, and it’s only a precaution.”

Charles doesn’t know how Erik did it. What he said or how he acted. But he follows Jean onto the aircraft, Charles supposes for basic gun safety lessons. Darwin is laughing when he leaves the aircraft. “Just don’t shoot Hank!”

Jean definitely learned that look from Erik. Charles follows them up, Hank is adjusting one of the seats for Warren’s wings while Ororo gets put in her seat by Raven who is telling her a story that Charles is almost certain was an episode of Zorro. 

Erik has helped Jean into her seat, laying the small pistol in her lap. “Always keep it pointing towards the back of the plane.”

Charles watches her nod softly before beckoning Erik closer, so she can kiss him on the cheek when he’s in range. Charles pretends he doesn’t see the man blush. He comes forward to straighten seatbelts and smooth down hair. 

“Take care of each other. Stay alert, stay cautious, stay safe.” He’s sure that Erik has impressed a very different set of advice on them. He can only hope that they find their own way through all of it.

◢♘♞◣

“How long is this going to take anyway? We’ve been out here forever.”

Erik is certain that Alex’s mutant power is not ‘high powered energy beams’ or ‘nipple lasers’ as Raven calls it but whining. He’s been moving through the southern woods with Darwin and Alex for half an hour now and he’s about to tie both of them to a tree.

“Look, if you two want to go make out somewhere I can’t see you and let me do my job, I would be more than happy.” Erik grits through his teeth. 

“That’s incredibly irresponsible,” Darwin remarks but Alex is already dragging him behind a tree and Darwin, like his namesake implies, adapts.

Erik tries not to grumble like the old man that Alex had been accusing him of being. He couldn’t sense much out here but the buckles on their clothes, Raven’s bracelet, Charles buttons. Speaking of. Erik moves quickly along the ridge before sliding down an embankment and landing in a crouch in front of Charles whose eyes are far too wide and surprised for him the be as telepathic as he’s claiming.

“I’m still not used to how fast you move.” He blinks as Erik brushes the snow off himself.

“It’s a gift. Why are you not with Raven?”

“She claimed I was slowing her down with my sighing. I could ask you about Darwin and Alex but I think I’ll pass. Any luck?”

“You would know if I had any luck,” Erik frowns as he falls into step next to Charles. 

“Do you know what your range is?” Charles has that curious scientist look to him, it’s a bit uncomfortable but then he smiles like a child with a new toy.

“I’ve never measured. Usually I can hear it within a mile, depending on how big it is.”

Charles frowned, “I didn’t see the location exactly, but I got the impression that it was big. Some vast yawning sea of grey. I’m not sure I’m making any sense.”

Erik shrugs, he knows that Charles doesn’t see things the way normal people do. He’s heard him talk to Raven about her ‘colors’. Erik supposes it’s the same way that he hears metal. “I’m assuming it’s a facility somewhere but south is all you really got from her?”

Charles closes his eyes, stopping in his tracks. “She was happy there. Something that rarely happens for her, she was free, unfettered just as soon as they got... It has to be underground, but there aren’t any landmarks that she gave me.”

He opens his eyes and gives Erik a sheepish look as if he hasn’t helped at all. The fact that they were even close to somewhere that Shaw had been was good enough. 

“Maybe you could try stretching your range, there’s three miles of vacant fields that we haven’t covered.” Charles nods his head and Erik sighs.

“Fine.” He closes his eyes, focuses on them, on Charles’ buttons and the coin in his pocket, pushing out.

Buckles, bracelet, cans, nails, wire, some shapes- horse bridle, weathervane, bullets, bottlecaps...

“This isn’t going to work,” Erik opens his eyes. “I can’t cover three miles, even for something as big as a facility underground.”

Charles is looking at him, that strange almost ‘through him’ look. “When you listen for the metal what is it exactly you do? What do you listen for?”

Screaming. Gunshots. Mama. Erik frowns. “It works better when I’m angry.”

“Really? I can’t imagine you were very angry right now.”

“I’m frustrated enough to manage.” Erik frowns while Charles laughs as they begin to walk again.

“You know, if your power works better when you’re angry, it’s most likely emotionally based. You might be able to find a better balance if you tried.”

“A better balance? Between what rage and insanity?”

He probably shouldn’t have said that, because Charles frowns like he does when one of the children have done something they shouldn’t have. It makes Erik’s stomach twist for it to be turned on to him. 

“Between rage and serenity. Do you have any memories of when you’re happy? Ones that are as powerful as the ones when you’re angry?”

That is a silly question and Erik’s look says as much. He was in the camps, he lived through a war. Nothing is more powerful than his anger. “Nothing comes to mind,” he drawls, though he knows Charles senses his meaning.

He expects that to be the end of that. He doesn’t expect Charles to frown, think and then wriggle his fingers by his temple. “Do you mind?”

◢♘♞◣

Charles is waiting for Erk to deny him, to give him that look of horror that others have given him before in the past. But it doesn’t come, Erik does look shocked, like he wasn’t expecting Charles to ask that but he doesn’t look disgusted or horrified. He does look wary before he shrugs. “If you think you can do something.”

Oh. Erik stands like he’s at attention, putting his arms behind his back and nodding towards Charles. “Go on.”

He can do this smoothly, slide into Erik’s colors. But now he has permission, he can poke fingers into shadows and pull out the light. He eases slowly through the fence, down deep to where he’d seen that flicker. Some small candlelight, and a woman with a kind face, speaking yiddish to a small boy who knows nothing but joy, nothing but wonder. Charles widens the crack in the place that it’s hidden in, letting the candlelight spill out and fade away the red.

He hears Erik gasp and withdraws quickly, blinking open his eyes to see if he accidentally hurt him. But Erik is blinking away tears, the wonder on the boy’s face echoed in his. “I’d forgotten that.”

“I don’t know why,” Charles breathes, his voice thick in his throat. “It was beautiful.”

Erik steps forward, twining his fingers in Charles’ coat and bringing them together until their foreheads are touching. It’s not much of a stretch from there for Charles to tilt up his head and kiss Erik. It’s broken when Erik makes a questioning noise before he lifts his head, a look of wonder and confusion on his features.

“Erik?”

“There’s something to the southeast. Something big.”

Charles knows his eyes have gone wide, but then he’s grinning as Erik tries to not laugh but the mirth is there behind his eyes. “I’ll summon the others.”

◢♘♞◣

“So, you’re saying there’s no way in?” Raven has her arms crossed over her chest as she watches Erik pace over the solid sound of booming metal.

The others are in a formation around Charles, who has settled down in the snow with his eyes closed, trying to see if they were the only ones out there. Erik had found what they were looking for, and it was huge, a perfect sphere of metal underground. What he couldn’t find was a damned door. 

“They must have some other way of getting in,” Alex frowns. “Do we have intel on the mutants that Shaw runs with?”

Darwin hissed through his teeth. “Um, like maybe one of them is a teleporter? We haven’t been able to confirm it but it in his list of theorized powers.”

Erik stops behind Charles, Darwin shuffles out of his way to make room. 

“What now then? Unless you can adapt to make doors?” Raven sticks her tongue out at Darwin as he makes a face.

“I can make doors,” Alex grins.

“That won’t be necessary.” Charles speaks as he opens his eyes. “There isn’t anyone in a six mile radius. Erik, if you would be so kind.”

Erik reaches out, grasping Charles’ shoulder as he beckons the other’s closer. Erik closes his eyes, he focuses on the light this time, instead of the shouts and gunshots. He sees a brilliant flicker of candlelight. Red and gold. The sphere under them shifts, groaning as the metal rises to split the ground. It’s so easy like this, to make a platform and slide it down, the sphere shaping back around them to hold the earth at bay as they all ease down to the walkway that he knows is there. He takes a few moments to replace all the metal back where he got it, smoothing the sphere again, reforming bolts and supports as the others mutter.

“Darwin, can you make out if there’s lights?” 

“There’s electrical to the left.” Erik says as he reaches down, helps Charles to stand in the dark.

He can see the glimmer of Darwin's eyes, two spots of light as he hears him hum. “Okay, watch yourselves.”

The sound of a switch thrown echos in the expanse and... Erik blinks as the lights rise around them, painting the inside of the sphere with white light. He knows that Raven gasps, and Alex utters a low whistle. A sphere of pure metal, some alloy that Erik only finds somewhat familiar. They’re on a walkway that extends out into the center of the room. A coil of wires loops down from the ceiling with some sort of curved helmet dangling from the end of it. Darwin is walking along the wall, looking at a panel of lights and instruments. Nothing that Erik can recognize.

“Do you know what it is?” He asks, following Darwin along the wall.

“Not sure, this is more Hank’s bag. But from what Charles was saying-”

“Do not do that! That is stupid!”

Erik and Darwin turn at the same time when Raven yells. Charles is standing at the end of the walkway, considering the helmet which he’s holding. Alex is leaning on the railing in front of him shaking his head but grinning while Raven is making her way towards them, her boots striking the metal walkway with an angry tone.

Erik rolls his eyes as he follows her. 

“I wasn’t going to just jam something I didn’t recognize on my head.” Charles pouts.

“Yes, you were. It was going to be like the pink punch incident all over again. Oh, what's this? Let me prod it.” Raven takes the helmet out of his hands as Erik reaches the end of the walkway.

“It’s meant for Emma. She’s very attached to it.” Charles points out.

“Good, so let her have it.” Raven snaps at the same time Erik frowns.

“You think it might work for all telepaths?”

“No,” Raven growls.

“Yes.” Charles nods.

“No fighting!” Darwin calls as he continues to study the consoles.

“Diplomacy.” Alex says which makes both Raven and Charles sigh.

“Fine. Yes.” Charles says.

“No.” Raven shakes her head.

“No.” Darwin yells down the walkway as he crouches down to look at something.

“Yeah, sure, it’s his own head.” Alex says.

Then Erik finds Charles, Raven, and Alex all staring at him. Alex nods at him. “Cast your vote, yo. You’re tiebreaker.”

Oh. That was what they meant by diplomacy. Ugh, now he found himself between both siblings, Charles who had that terrible hopeful sort of pained look and Raven who looked like she might suddenly develop the power to set him on fire with her eyes. 

“It’s Charles’ decision.” Erik pronounces with a frown, closing his eyes as Raven punches him in the arm. Gods, ow.

“This is still a stupid decision.” Raven says grudgingly, but lets her brother take the helmet from her hands.

“I never said it wasn’t. I just think in the spirit of progress, I should at least try.” Charles takes a deep breath before he settles the contraption on his head.

Alex squints his eyes and veers away from Charles as... Nothing happens. Raven frowns. “Well? What does it feel like?”

“It feels like I have a bucket on my head,” Charles snaps. “Don’t even start to sass me-”

“Maybe you’re supposed to put it somewhere else,” Alex grins.

“For the love of-”

“Hey!” They all start as Darwin shouts. “I’ve got a panel here lighting up like Christmas!”

Erik turns, torn for second between staying with Charles or going back over to Darwin when Charles gasps. His fingers curl around the railing in front of him and all at once the lights dim, them something begins to hum. A thousand vague lights start to flicker around them, nothing that Erik can make out but, they slide out from Charles like a grid.

“Charles?!” Raven shouts, stepping up to curl her fingers over Charles’ on the railing.

“It finds people...” Charles breathes, blue eyes looking into, nothing that Erik can see but- Tears are welling up in Charles’ eyes.

“There are so many. There are so many of us.”

Us? Mutants? Erik can’t even fathom that hope, but now he can feel it in the hum coming off of Charles. So much promise, so much- There’s a clunk and the lights go out. Erik hears Charles shout, something pained and terrified as seventeen buttons crumple to the ground.

◢♘♞◣

Charles is stuck in a million minds, all different flickering brilliant minds. There are mutants everywhere, all hiding. Some more easily than others. So many, not the insignificant numbers that Charles has been working with all theses years. Thousands, millions... There’s a girl in Peru that can make plants grow, a man in Champagne that could control insects, a woman in New York that hears radio waves...

He groans as the minds crush in on him. He had to turn off somehow. Focus. Focus on the candlelight on the... He sees blood, but not the dried rust of Erik’s memories. This is fresh, blood on teeth and the screams of thousands, not of one woman. Charles chokes at what he sees people dying in the streets, atomic bombs lighting up the sky, everywhere all over the world. Men shaking hands. He sees what the governments have already done.

Charles opens his eyes when someone grabs him by the throat, lifts him from where he’s laying. Shaw is grinning down at him, spotless in a suit as the sounds of shouting and fighting spiral around them, echoed in the metal.

“You owe me a telepath, Charlie. I’m not happy.” 

He can’t focus. Not with the poison of Shaw’s mind surrounding him, his own mind rubbed raw, torn open by the machine. He whimpers, the panicked animal instinct of danger rising in his chest, someone, please. There’s a scream of metal and Shaw drops him, the impact clearing his head. Erik is sailing through the air, a beacon of white hot rage. The walkway is tearing up around him, driving shards of metal at Shaw as he laughs, dances backwards as if Erik is a just a child with a lot of very amusing toys. 

Charles swallows, where? He spots Darwin in the air, tossed by a streak of red that disappears and reappears with a faint popping sound. A girl with humming iridescent wings is fluttering around the top of the sphere. Her dark hair streaming behind her as she growls, spits a ball of something that strikes the metal console near Raven and hisses through it. Alex is a crumpled form on the ground at her feet, Charles can see the blood staining his suit as he tries futilely to push himself up.

It was a trap, of course it was. Shaw knew Charles would take down Emma. It was a calculated risk because in the end Shaw would have Charles and he could kill the rest. Charles tries to push himself up, but his head is swimming. He can hear Shaw taunting Erik while Raven shouts, she’s shouting for him. At him. He looks up and sees a familiar mutant, the whirlwinds arching behind him as he runs with a smirk on his face. The entire walkway is shaking, the wind pulling dangerously on the compromised metal. 

Charles cringes as he reaches out to hang on to anything he can, if, no, when the walkway fell he’d have to- The wind shrieks and Charles looks up. He sees Raven for an instant before she leaps, grabbing onto the mutants back, then both of them are twisting, falling. He thinks he shouts, no, he does shout because Erik turns. Turns just long enough for Shaw to take something from the console. 

“Grab him!” 

Charles blinks when a man with red skin appears before him, he’s bleeding from a cut on his face but he’s smiling. He reaches his hand out- There’s a brilliant ruby flash, and Charles can hear the scream of metal, smell the sudden flash of burning. _“Alex,”_ he thinks before the entire platform he’s on drops.

◢♘♞◣

Erik jumps really before he knows what he’s doing. But the red blast sheared through the rest of the walkway, he can feel the tumble of metal falling with Charles on it. He knows Charles gasps when he hits the metal, landing a little harder than he intended to, but he’s focused on slowing it, dragging it towards the side of the sphere. Finding somewhere he can anchor it so he can get his bearings.

The walkway is lighting up red behind him. The teleporter had run Alex through before anyone really knew what was going on. All Erik knew was that suddenly there were buttons and cufflinks where there hadn’t been before. He should have reacted faster, he should have known. He doesn’t know where Raven is, the girl with wings got knocked out of the air by Darwin. He lost Shaw. He doesn’t know where- Charles, he knows where Charles is, focus.

For a second it’s quiet, before another blast tears a chasm in the side of the sphere. It’s wide enough, he could get the platform through it. He- Darwin is grappling with the teleporter again, harring him so he stays away from them. They’re trying to get Charles. Emma for Charles. Shit. Erik looks up, freezes when he spots Alex working his way slowly along the edge of the console. He’s grinning with bloody teeth and Erik has seen that look on mens faces. Right before- Erik pulls Charles towards him, slamming his hand out to form the metal he has to work with into a shield. The red blast is still searing through the metal, he forces them through the gap in the sphere, grabbing at all the metal he can trying to shield them as he pushes them towards the surface.

He doesn’t know where they come out. Somewhere in the middle of trees as the entire sky lights around them in a ruby glow. Someone saw that, someone had to. It takes him a moment to blink, figure out which end was up. Charles was sprawled across his chest, he moans softly as Erik sits up, running his hands over Charles checking for injuries. Just cuts and scrapes, and whatever that machine did to him. He stands, carefully cradling Charles to his chest. They were too exposed out here. If the teleporter came after them there wasn’t going to be much that Erik could do. 

He makes his way along the trees until he comes to the cavern. A mile wide hole in the middle of Russia. Erik blinks, maybe they won’t have to worry about the teleporter. Hell, maybe they won’t have to worry about any of the other mutants, Alex saw to that. He had to get away from it, before the army came. He’s lost Shaw. He had to get Charles somewhere safe.

◢♘♞◣

It’s much quieter when Charles wakes this time. He’s also much more comfortable, someone has piled blankets on him and he can just make out a faint bit of lantern light. He can hear something, low mutters in Russian, hissing.

“Erik?” It comes out more of a slurred sound than a real word but the light shifts and Erik is there reaching out to smooth back Charles’ hair.

“Are you with me?” 

Charles nods against his fingers, settling as Erik sits down on the floor in front of him so their faces are level. Erik frowns, “Next time I’ll listen to Raven.”

Charles smiles for a moment before he sees her in his mind, falling. “Raven?”

“I don’t know,” Erik growls in the back of his throat, a noise of anger, of sympathy. “I don’t know where any of them are. Alex destroyed the entire machine, I barely got us out.” 

Charles closes his eyes, focusing on the press of Erik’s hand against his cheek instead of the grief that wants to well up in him now. He can see the flutter of burnt orange coming from Erik, rust flaking, the sudden sad pull of how do I make this right? The rage is there, roiling red with it, Shaw in his grasp, falling, metal twisting unspooling eclipsed by pain, by not knowing what to do, never knowing- Charles hears himself whimper as Erik smoothes his hands over his face.

“Charles, Charles,” He’s pulled from the bed and cradled in Erik’s lap.

He closes his eyes tightly, mind writhing until- _Here here, this._ There’s the candlelight. The soft glow of the flame, Charles stays in the flicker until he calms, until the flame turns into snow falling and the smooth rise of fragrant smoke. Feathers, baby scent, powder, and the feel of curls brushing against his face. 

Charles blinks open his eyes slowly, trying to not shake. “You’re bleeding.”

Erik looks down at Charles like that was the silliest thing he could have said, but it’s true, there’s a gash on his shoulder, scratches across face. Charles reaches out and runs his fingers under the scratches on his cheek, carefully though Erik winces and gives him a look.

“I’ll live, come on.” Erik shifts Charles to sit on the cot, pulling a thick wool blanket around him. 

Charles stares down at his hands, two of the fingers on the right are splinted. It isn’t until he notices that the aches and pains make themselves known. Erik stands, grumbling as he goes to dig through a low metal cabinet.

“Where are we?” Charles ask, looking at the concrete walls and the thin window at the end, barred with a metal grate.

“I have bolt holes all over the countryside, just in case something should happen. This is one of them, used to be an old munitions bunker.” 

He comes back and hands Charles a silver flask that reeks of vodka when he smells it. He must make a face because Erik sighs. “It’s not going to have tea in it. It’s the best I have.”

Charles takes a small sip, scrunching his eyes up as he does. That was a pity, he could do with a proper cup of tea. Erik is fiddling with a box that seems to contain mostly medical supplies, pulling bandages out and tearing them with his teeth. 

Charles can only watch him for a few moments before he caps the flask and beckons him over. Erik settles on the floor with his back to him, close enough that Charles can reach out and brush his fingers over his bare shoulders. Erik leans back into the touch, his mind is whirling between rage and concern, all of it wrapping around Charles like a wave.

“What did you see?” Charles blinks as Erik speaks. “You looked into him and-”

There’s a little boy in that voice something scared of the dark, something that shouldn’t come from a man like Erik. Charles leaves the flask on the bed as he reaches forward to take the box of medical supplies off of Erik’s lap and pull out a wad of gauze.

“When I was eight my mother introduced me to a man named Kurt Marko. He was abrasive and very uncaring, she married him. I grew very ill when I was younger, doctors said it was some sort of genetic weakness. I was always tired, I had trouble keeping food down. My mother hired nurses, all the best doctors but nothing seemed to help.” He hears Erik swallow, keeping still as Charles gently cleaned the cuts on his back. “I grew older, stronger, and so did my powers. When I was ten I was able to shield myself. I got better, Raven came to live with us and she helped me perfect my powers. I learned how to see the shapes and colors of other minds. I looked into hers, into my mothers. I didn’t look into Kurt’s. His mind was a poison, full of hatred and a viciousness that I never thought I would see replicated after his death.”

His hands are shaking as Erik reaches up to grasp his fingers, turning so that he could look at Charles. “I was wrong,” Charles breathes. “I saw it in Shaw. I saw-”

“Don’t. I know what kind of a monster he is. ”

Charles bites the inside of his cheek, he can’t tell Erik what he saw. Meetings. Charts. Laboratories. Money changing hands, presidents, Queens... Shaw would save them from this mutant threat. It was the fear that threatened to crush Charles. The viciousness of nods and smiles, signatures damning children to a fate that no one should face.

“You’ve seen him. Will you still argue that he should live?” The rage is bright in Erik, red blooming into white blooming into-

“That was never the argument,” Charles reaches down to cradle Erik’s face in his hands. “If you murder him you become him, and I can’t- Couldn’t stand that.”

There’s a blackness creeping in at the edges of Erik’s mind, a poison that would eat him alive if... “Don’t become that.” Charles breathes as he bends down to kiss Erik.

He tastes of metal and adrenaline, but he opens easily for Charles. All aspects of him do. It would be so easy to- “Please,” Charles breathes and Erik stands coming to hover over him to bend down and steal his own kisses.

◢♘♞◣

Erik mind is a whirlwind of color and noise. He could feel Charles’ pain the entire time he carried him to the bunker. It was like a hot iron, pressing into the back of his head, behind his eyes. He wanted it to stop, he didn’t know what he could to ease that sort of thing. No one should have to look into the horror that was Shaw, to see their friends fall and have to face it by themselves. Charles tilts his head up, hands coming up to tug on Erik’s forearms pulling him down to sit beside him on the creaking cot. Charles had looked at him like a man haunted, at the thought that Erik could be anything like Shaw. He is easily gathered to his chest, the low sounds he makes as Erik slides his hands up his back, mindful of the bruises as a flutter of soft yellow slides through the muddle of his head.

“I don’t want to think,” Charles breathes against his lips. This he could do, he had control over this.

“Then don’t,” Erik murmurs. They were safe for now, hidden and as long as Shaw didn’t have Emma he couldn’t find them.

He tips Charles’ head up the inch he needs to start kissing him again, losing himself in the wash of color as Charles lets him push, lets him turn this into more. 

“Lay down,” Erik whispers as he nuzzles Charles’ ear.

“You cannot be seriously considering doing anything on this cot,” Charles smiles at him, the banter familiar as Erik rolls his eyes.

“It’s this or the floor.”

“I’m sure we can reach some sort of compromise,” Charles mutters as he shifts in Erik’s lap, making him growl.

Compromise turns out to be rather excellent in Erik’s opinion. He’s padded the floor with all the blankets he could find as well as Charles coat while Charles kneels over the cot, moaning as Erik plasters himself to his back, kissing and nipping the curve of his neck. He’s dragged Charles’ pants off and his boots are who knows where but he has to stop what he’s doing to fiddle with his own belt. 

That obviously is unacceptable because Charles turns, his lithe form moving with an easy grace that makes Erik pause in what he’s doing. He thinks it’s the pause that makes Charles slide up carefully and press a long kiss Erik’s lips. He forgets what he’s doing, choosing to wrap his arms around Charles’ warm waist, of course that’s when the man bites him, a sharp nip on the corner of his mouth, a hot button that Erik had never told any of his lovers about. 

“Cheater,” Erik mutters as he shifts his weight so he can pull Charles closer to his chest as well as off balance. The man squeaks s he lifts him, balancing his weight with one arm as he undoes his pants with the other. Charles has wrapped his legs around his waist as he pulls Erik back so he’s settled against his chest. Erik reaches around, palms of his hands skimming over Charles’ belly and over to his hips before he bends down, nuzzling the curls around his erection. Charles makes a shocked sound and then there are fingers winding into his hair, tugging him down insistently.

Erik teases for a moment longer before he takes Charles in his mouth, sucking softly before actually applying himself, inspired by the noises that the man is making. 

“I am going to fall off this bloody cot.” Charles grumbles, tugging on Erik’s hair sharply.

“You are not,” Erik mutters as the cot bends under his will, shaping to support Charles as he bites the inside of his cheek. This wasn’t going to get anywhere.

“There’s vaseline in the first aid kit,” Charles’ voice is just a little wrecked.

“That’s not ideal-”

“We are in a cement bunker hiding from a madman. Use the vaseline.” Charles snaps and Erik tries to not roll his eyes.

“You are a demanding-”

He’s cut off again as Charles surges forward to kiss him. _No more thinking,_ echoes in his mind and he reaches out with his hand before he uses his power to drag the vaseline over by its metal lid.

“Over,” Erik gets out and thankfully Charles doesn’t argue, flipping over as Erik shifts the cot again to support him. 

He takes his time coating his fingers in the ointment as he bends over, kissing Charles’ spine while he reaches his hand around to cup Charles’ erection. He works him open slowly waiting until Charles is a panting mess, pushing back on his fingers every time he slides them deep.

Charles makes a sound that might mean ‘hurry’ or ‘now’ but it’s the brilliant throbbing violet that blooms behind his eyes that makes him slick his own erection before shifting into place. He thinks he bites his lip so hard that it bleeds, or maybe it was already bleeding. But he doesn’t want to hurt Charles even as the man grunts and tries to push back against him. He’s going slow, even if it’s maddening how tight Charles is. He says enough when he leans forward and bites Charles’ shoulder, who stiffens but goes languid under him, relaxing enough that Erik can slide in all the way.

Erik thinks about snow and the thin blankets at base and the time he had to drag Alenko out of that frozen creek. But Charles is shifting, pressing back until they both groan. Then he can’t help it, his hands coming to curl around Charles’ hips as he backs out a fraction before sliding back in. Charles whines something high pitched and the words, _Don’t stop_ flash across his senses. He pulls Charles up on his knees so that his back is pressed to his chest, and claims a twisting kiss before he starts rocking in earnest.

Charles keens, his fingers coming back to grip Erik’s hair as he gasps, meeting Erik’s every thrust. Color is blooming in his mind, as the metal sings around him. He isn’t going to last long, not if the tumble of Charles mind has anything to say about it. Erik reaches up to stroke Charles in time with the rolling of his hips. Charles cries out when Erik’s orgasm hits him, a tightening up his spine that Erik isn’t sure at first is him or Charles. But he’s the one blinking and panting a few seconds later when Charles comes over his fist.

They both sink into the nest of blankets avoiding the twisted mess that’s become of the cot. He’ll fix it later, when he has use of his muscles again. Charles shifts so that he slides out of him, letting out a small moan before he rolls over to curl against Erik’s chest. Erik is mildly aware that they should clean up.

“Five minutes,” Charles mumbles.

“Right,” Erik presses his face to the top of his head. “No thinking.”

◢♘♞◣

Emerald grass, the smell of the sea is strong grey tea steam and _CHARLES!_ Charles blinks awake. He’s still in the bunker, wrapped in the blanket with Erik pressed behind him snoring softly into the hair at the nape of his neck. He knows that after dozing Erik had cleaned them up and dragged him onto the newly fixed cot. What did he? Charles closes his eyes until he finds that pinpoint of light again, the familiarity bringing a smile to his face. “Erik, wake up.”

The man is almost instantly awake, arms coming up to tug Charles closer before he realizes who spoke.

“Erik, I can sense Raven. We have to get up.” 

Erik makes a low noise as Charles wriggles in his arms to stare at him as he finishes waking up, “Where?”

“To the east, somewhere with water.” 

Erik frowns but then nods, there’s an image in his mind, roads and the scent of the frigid ocean. It gets both of them scrambling off the cot. Raven has to be somewhere along the coast, if they could just get close enough he could find her.

Erik has a knack for finding horses, or at least having seventeen escape routes at all times. Charles couldn’t blame him, going after a man like Shaw meant running into people that he kept company with. 

He tries to not squeeze Erik too tightly around the waist as they make their way through a copse of woods, keeping away from the road. He’d already been laughed at for balking at the fact that there were going to be horses involved in this to begin with. Just because he’d grown up affluent did not mean he knew how to ride. He’d tried to mount the horse first, honestly, it was just... Cars don’t move when you’re trying to get in them. Instead Erik had slid onto the beast bareback and then hauled Charles up by his buttons and the nape of his neck. If he wasn’t so worried about Raven he would have been complaining the entire time. 

Charles shuts his eyes, using the arm wrapped around Erik’s waist to steady himself. They were getting closer, her mind was a low hum of muted color. Was she hiding? She was somewhere trying to not draw attention to herself that was sure. He taps on Erik’s waist, giving him direction. 

They left at dusk and it’s nearly dawn by the time Charles can smell the sea. Raven is north of where they are, not too far. Erik thinks it’s wise to let the horse run free. They walk close to each other, Charles comforted by the whirl of _redblackflickeringlight_ near him. He can sense Erik and he can sense Raven and- “Stop.”

Erik freezes as Charles tenses, it’s like he’s in a city the whirl of minds but he hasn’t felt that since Moscow, since London. “There’s people up there, a lot of people.”

They slip into the shadows of trees until they can get a good look at the valley below them leading out to the ocean. It is a lot of people. It’s an army.

“What the-?” Erik breathes. “That has to be every man stationed on the eastern side. Why the hell have they gathered?”

Charles closes his eyes and casts out a fine net. “Something, there’s a lot of confusion. A lot of the men don’t know what’s happening. General Karapov. Blast, I knew we should have arrested that man along with Frost.”

“You said something about judicial process.” Erik remarks dryly.

“Yes, well, I say a lot of things. He’s told the men to gather, that they’re suspecting an attack but I don’t know who-”

“There are an awful lot of missiles down there for that being just a shipyard.”

Charles frowns, “Lambs to the slaughter, kill a Russian army, blame whom you please. Then Shaw has his war.” 

Erik whistles low as he leans forward. “We have to stop Shaw, or at least get them out of there.”

“I can’t keep ahold of Raven with this much interference. I’m going to have to get closer, she’s more by the water on the other side of the army.” 

Erik leans back on his haunches, “Well, if you have any idea how to do that I would love to hear it.”

◢♘♞◣

“Charles, this is insane. This is insane, Charles.”

When Erik had asked for plan, he had meant one of those well thought out legitimate ones that Charles was always going on about. He was not expecting to just walk through the damn middle of the camp.

But there they were, arm in arm with Charles keeping his hand at his temple. It was Erik’s job to steer them gently and make sure that they didn’t run into any obstacles. 

“Don’t distract me,” Charles grits through his teeth as Erik stops them to let a group of laughing soldiers walk past them.

It was the entire eastern squadron, and some of the men from the more southern outposts. A lot of them seemed uneasy, of course they were. They had no reason to be here unless something was wrong. Erik threads the pair of them through tents making his way towards the creaking ship yard, there were three ships, a handful of containers, a crane, a- He stops them as they make their way out of the camp and come upon a warehouse. Erik checks the perimeter before he pulls Charles into the shadow of the building.

“We’re through. Find her.”

Charles’ eyes flicker under closed lids before he opens them, “Two warehouses down. The teleporter and the flyer are with her.”

Erik moves quickly, keep Charles close behind him. Charles is leaking frustration when they arrive at a warehouse with a huge side door to allow ships in. “Should we...?” 

“No,” Erik says as Charles gestures towards the door.

Instead he pulls Charles to his side and pulls them both up by the metal on their clothes to a roof access whose ladder had rusted away years ago. He opens the metal door silently without laying a finger on it. They both crawl along a catwalk for a few inches until they can peek over.

There are four figures in the warehouse and Erik bits his cheek as Charles winds his fingers through his. _I can’t sense him, it must be that hideous headgear._

Shaw is perched on a desk, regarding a crate, in a suit and a black helmet with a glinting sheen. Erik wants to crush it on his head. _Erik!_

He looks to the side where Charles is and swallows. If Raven were to get hurt in the middle of all this.

“Will that really hold him?” They both look down as Shaw’s voice filters up through the rafters.

“Of course that won’t hold him, you said he’s an adapt. Nothing we have is gonna hold him.” The dark haired girl that had been a terror in the air works a kink out of her neck. Her arms are covered in bandages.

Shaw sighs and stands. “It might be too much to take him with us. We should just get rid of him now.”

“I am open to suggestions,” The red devil smirks, his tail waving as he walks in a slow circle around the crate.

 _They have Darwin in there._ Erik blinks before he looks up at Charles.

 _Where’s Raven?_ Charles smirks before he nods towards the other mutant, the one that had made tornados out of his hands who is sitting against the side of the desk, looking absolutely bored. Erik grins, clever girl. _Does she know where here?_

But the mutant casts his eyes up towards the rafters when he asks that, tapping an ankle that sports a bracelet with a ‘C’. _Do we need a plan? Or can I just do what I’m best at?_

Charles raises his fingers to his temple. _If I take the others, I am assuming you’ll go after Shaw?_

_Are you going to stop me?_

Charles looks at Erik for a long while, like he’s trying to commit to memory what he sees there. Then Charles closes his eyes. A second later the teleporter crumples to the ground as Raven shoves her shoulder hard into the desk. The flying girl screams but dances back away from the group. Erik is off the catwalk, using the remnants of a metal ladder to slow his fall. He’s tearing the crate open before he lands, revealing the bound and gagged form of Darwin who is blinking at him slowly. 

He tears the desk in half as Raven dodges to the side her borrowed form rippling away as Shaw scrambles to his feet, with a mad grin on his face. There’s a thump, a low pulse and Erik is slamming up a shield made from whatever he can gather as Shaw’s face ripples. Raven and the other girl run towards Darwin as they all get blown back, Erik’s shield burning away as they scatter. They’re all singed but still moving. Erik can hear Shaw laughing, that merry sort of laugh he always did when Erik particularly impressed him.

“You’re getting better, Erik. Much quicker than when I last saw you.”

“You’d be surprised,” Erik says through clenched teeth.

“Where’s Charles!?” Raven shouts.

“In the back, get Darwin out of here!” Erik surges forward as Raven helps the flyer to her feet, at least someone was making allies.

The front of the warehouse is a twisted mess when Erik rushes through the smoke and Shaw is nowhere to be seen but Erik can feel the helmet. He scrambles through the wreckage to the warehouse next door and stops. Three ships was wrong, two ships and a submarine. He can’t think of anything but running, up and into the hatch, tearing at the walls to get to Shaw. He hears the flutter of Charles in the back of his head. No. Not now. Not when he’s so close. He doesn’t feel the ripple until it’s too late, until he’s slammed back, bouncing off the walls of the hallway he’s in like a ball. It’s a blur of color and he almost threatens to pass out but the coin is screaming in his pocket and the metal tells him which way is up. He’s thrown violently into a wall and then there’s a hand at his throat.

“Hallo, mein kleines monster.”

Erik blinks as Shaw tugs on the shoulder of his coat, looking at the insignias with a bored interest. “Soviet army, MI6, I would have thought you’d stay away from men with big ideas, but what do I know?” 

Shaw smiles, an oily thing as he leans forward. “What has that telepath been telling you? That he wants you to stand by him and fight the big fight?” His eyes widen as Erik struggles to find his footing. “Or maybe it’s best to think about what he hasn’t told you? The names he has that he hasn’t given his government, all the little children that he’s been keeping tabs on. How else did you think he noticed his little playthings were missing. Did he tell you his government told him to gather data? Strange because according to my sources Charles Xavier and that pretty sister of his are listed as rogue.”

Erik swallows. That wasn’t, it could be true.

“Did he tell you why he wanted to find the children? Did he tell you he was going to take them home? Or did he tell you about those lovely facilities in New York that he doesn’t think I know about.”

Erik twists in his grip, Charles wouldn’t do a thing like that. Not Charles, not men like him. The knight and the dagger, bishop and rook. Charles is shouting at Erik in the back of his head worry seeping through and Erik closes his eyes. There’s a flicker of candlelight and Charles’s face in low light of the bunker.

When he opens his eyes Shaw is frozen, a contorted look of surprise of his face, the helmet of his dangling in the air above his head. 

“You always said I had problems with fine control,” Erik slips out of his grasp, leaving his hand outstretched, gripping nothing. “You said I’d never get anywhere without practice. Well, I practiced.”

He reaches out and the helmet comes to him easily as the coin rises from his pocket and slowly begins to spin. He can hear Charles frantic, _he can’t hold Shaw and stop Erik, he can’t-_ Erik slides the helmet on his head, now it’s only him and Shaw and the spinning coin. Charles said that he would become a monster if he killed Shaw. But that’s what Erik was, a monster searching for his creator, a knife in the dark.

“I’m going to count to three, and I’m going to move the coin.”

◢♘♞◣

Charles knows if he screams that he’ll frighten Raven. They made it out of the warehouse, Darwin is movingly slowly but Charles doesn’t think he’s hurt. He’d shaken his head when asked about it, and Alex. Their group had been working their way around the edge of the shipyard, if he could get them to the- he’d stop walking with a grunt, his hand outstretched on the wall of the warehouse. He can hear Raven talking to him, her hands on his face, he grabs her wrist to still her. He can’t, Erik could be killed if he let Shaw go. He could be killed and he couldn’t stop Erik, he just had to... There are tears in his eyes, not for the madman that winks out like a dying star but for the twisted look of rage on Erik’s face. _Peace_ Charles breathes, “Peace.”

“Charles?”

He opens his eyes to Raven’s wide golden eyes. Darwin is staring past her, behind Charles as the girl Raven brought with her, Angel, unfolds iridescent wings from her back.

“Army,” Raven says as Charles hears yelling in Russian.

He can feel the shaking fear of General Karapov as he orders the men to open fire, only half of them listen but it’s enough. It will be enough to kill them all and what will they do with Darwin? White walls and metal tools. Charles hears Raven gasp.

There is a wall of bullets when he turns, suspended like snowflakes in the air. Hovering slightly before they turn to face the soldiers. Erik is rising from the warehouse like an avenging angel, the dark metal of the helmet gleaming as his coat flares from the wind. The crumpled bloody form of Shaw collapsing on the cement behind him. Now the General has something else to fear.

“Erik,” Charles breathes, he has no hold over him now. No plan B. 

“Is it true?” Erik asks, landing with a fine grace. He’s talking to Charles but staring at the army. Charles wonders if he can see his own men among the faces. “Does your government know where you are?”

Charles feels the world fall out beneath his feet. Erik would never trust him if there wasn’t something to back him up. He would have never, he was used to pieces on a board, not Charles who belonged to no man, not anymore.

“No,” Charles swallows thickly. “They don’t.”

“And the children?” 

“Warren will go home.”

“The others?”

“They’ll get a choice.” Charles says because that’s what he always wanted, a choice not made out of fear.

“Will they?” The hurt is evidenced on Erik’s face, the confusion. Shaw was dead and nothing had changed. Charles wants so badly to go to him, to tell him about what the government threatened to do to them. What information Charles took from MI6 before he left. He wants to tell him about Westchester and peace for everyone. 

But he doesn’t have time. The General is shouting and more shots are fired. Darwin pulls Raven and Angel to the ground but Charles ignores his shouting as Erik turns with mad purpose. They’re just men following orders. Erik has to know that, he’s going to do something he regrets. The bullets are whizzing by Erik in a whirlwind as the General opens fire himself as the men begin to scatter in the face of Erik’s power. Erik raises his hand as Charles breaks from the group to run towards him. No, don’t, don’t become that.

There’s a sudden flash of pain and he’s stumbling, crashing to the ground in a heap as Raven screams. He hears the thud of metal hitting the ground. The rest of the men are scattering the only one fallen is the General, dead by his own gun. There are hands on him, turning him to face the grey sky and Erik. Erik, who has gone from anger to horror to grief. He wants to tell him it’s not his fault, but that’s not entirely true. 

“Charles,” Erik breathes his name like a prayer, a single word so laden with grief and confusion.

“I want you by my side,” Charles whispers because it’s the only true thing in his mind.

But Erik is looking at his hands, the bright red that’s staining them. Raven is coming up behind him and before Charles can say anything, can reach out Erik is gone, standing. The helmet clattering to the ground. Raven is running her fingers through his hair, murmuring about how they had to stop the bleeding, they had to get him to a hospital... But Charles is following the yellow flicker until he can’t sense it anymore.

◢♘♞◣

Charles shifts Ororo in his lap as she frowns over the book she’s holding, probably disappointed by the lack of pictures. She was really only here because Hank had come in at the beginning of class and given her to Charles covered in some sort of blue ink or paint.

There are five other children spread out among the furniture in his study. Warren, who has refused to wear a shirt since summer hit full force in New York is going over the notes that Jean has taken. Jean is sitting next to him, her bright hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. Scott sits next to her, the ruby lenses of his glasses catching the sunlight as he carefully rereads the passaged Charles had just spoken about.

Piotr is smiling at his sister, as Illyana works between her dictionary and the book spread in her lap. Piotr is really too old to be in the study reading ‘The Secret Garden’ with all the other children but Charles thinks he just likes the company.

Charles wheels his chair a few feet forward, “Alright, what about the character of Lord Craven? What themes are you seeing in his part of the tale?”

“He’s a jerk,” Scott says without thinking and Charles bites the inside of his cheek as Jean’s eyes widen. 

“Please elaborate, Scott.”

“He left his son, and Mary all alone in that big house. Just because he felt bad.”

“Right, he was grieving-”

“Just because he’s grieving doesn’t mean he has to leave him,” Scott says it with an angry pout that fades a bit as Jean leans over to bump his shoulder.

“Lord Craven could not go home. Not because he was sad but...” Illyana tries, biting her lip as she looks at her writing.

“He thought his wife dying was his fault.” Jean finishes for her as Warren nods.

“Which brings us to the theme of forgiveness,” Charles starts, gently taking the book from Ororo and finding the correct page before he hands it back to her. “I want us all to go back to page 35 and-”

Charles looks up as Darwin knocks on the door jam. “I hate to interrupt but Warren and Jean’s mama is on the phone.”

There’s two sets of eyes on him instantly trying to not vibrate with excitement. Ah, it must be five ‘o’ clock. “Alright, that’s it for reading for today. Go over your notes and get ready for dinner.”

The study is emptied in a scatter of pages and bare feet. Scott tackles Darwin around the waist as the other lifts him him up by the middle with one arm. Jean is the only one that stays behind coming to collect Ororo from Charles’ lap. “Should I giver her a bath?”

“I think we’ll have Angel or Janos do it. They’re the ones that left the mess on the kitchen table,” Charles smiles as he runs a lock of Ororo’s now blue hair in his fingers as she giggles.

“Charles,” Jean is pensive, her mind fluttering colors as she thinks. “Lord Craven couldn’t come home until he’d forgiven himself. Is that what you were going to talk about?”

Charles nods, “Yes, very astute. Sometimes people need to forgive themselves before they can be forgiven by others.”

Jean nods, hitching Ororo up on her hip as she leaves the study, walking quickly down the hall before Warren could monopolize the phone conversation. Charles lets out a breath as he straightens in his chair before he rolls it behind his desk, making a quick note about where they left off. Tomorrow the children would have economics with Emma and Angel would probably do something ridiculous with them involving paint and dried pasta. 

Charles smiles at the thought. A school for the gifted. Peace for them all. He’s not naive enough to think that Shaw was the last of men like him. But the children deserved to grow up somewhere safe, where their parents knew that someone understood their gifts. He had Emma and Azazel for the dirty work, though Raven was getting quite adept at it despite Charles’ frowning. He can hear Sean yelling about dinner, the windows rattling. This was perfect. Almost perfect.

◢♘♞◣

Erik stands in the shade of an awning reading a newspaper. He’s comfortable in his linen suit though the weather here in America was bordering disgustingly hot. He knew that in the hotel across the street were two senators that had been associated with something called Project Sentinel, that most of the world governments had given money to but none would say they had. With any luck he could find out more information tonight. He had to keep moving. Fight the good fight.

He folds his paper shut as a voice calls out, “Hey, do you have a light?”

It’s a young Asian woman, her long hair twisted to the side of her face as she waves a cigarette in front of his face. 

“Ah, a moment,” he says reaching into his pocket for his lighter. The people were friendlier in America, at least the young ones. He lights the girls cigarette and tries to not stare. For a moment- No. In the flicker of the lighter he’d thought her eyes looked golden. 

“Thanks,” she grins at him, sweet smelling smoke trailing behind her.

Her blue dress ripples in the sunlight behind her, her boots clicking against the pavement as she makes her way across the street into the hotel. She’s wearing a bracelet with a charm. It’s been almost a year since... 

Erik slips his lighter back in his pocket, the back of his fingers brushing against a tattered feather. He leaves his newspaper in the trash as he crosses the street.


End file.
